Grand Theft Auto: Iran 1979
Digital Trends / Ryan Fleming
22-Aug-2011

One of the directors of the Grand Theft Auto series is now working on a new open world game set in Iran during the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

History has always been a supple and fertile breeding ground for video games. World War II has been milked so hard that there may not be a single battle left that has not been digitally recreated in some form, while other genres like the Wild West seem to be released in waves. Some games have even been set in more publically sensitive time periods, like during the Vietnam War or some of the most recent battles in Iraq and Afghanistan. But this may be a first.

Video game director Navid Khonsari has plans to do something a little different with gaming, by creating a game based on the 1979 Iranian Revolution. The game will delve into the historical and fictional — but realistic — emotional toll felt by Iranians of the time, and allow you to jump between multiple characters and experience the Revolution from very different viewpoints. If you listen closely, you can almost hear the controversy beginning as the public blindly rages against a game set in Iran, which may cast the Islamic Republic under Ayatollah Khomeini in a favorable light while casting the American backed Shah’s regime as oppressive. In an interview with  >>>

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