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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Games invent cities, politicians, and companies mainly to give creators room to shape a world around its story, tone, and gameplay. A fictional setting can borrow the look and feel of a real place without having to reproduce its map, landmarks, businesses, or institutions exactly. But real cities can be valuable too: sometimes their landmarks and local character are precisely what make a game’s setting work.
Why make a city fictional?
To build the map around the game
A real city comes with a fixed geography and a history players may know. An invented one can be arranged to support traversal, missions, landmarks, and environmental storytelling. Ubisoft’s creative director Eric Couzian said the island of Auroa in Ghost Recon Breakpoint was fictional because the team wanted “total freedom of creativity to create the open world.” The invented setting gave the developers room to fit the island to the game’s premise while pursuing believable terrain and survival challenges. Ubisoft News, August 8, 2019.
To borrow reality without being bound to it
Fictional cities can combine recognizable features from several places, then change names, geography, or civic details. The Ninth Circuit described Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as using fictional cities modeled on Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Las Vegas, with altered neighborhood and business names. The result could evoke familiar places while serving the game’s irreverent, dystopian tone. Ninth Circuit opinion in E.S.S. Entertainment 2000, Inc. v. Rock Star Videos, Inc. (2008), reproduced in Barton Beebe’s Trademark Law: An Open-Source Casebook.
To create room for alternate history and invention
A game can also use a real city as its foundation without reproducing it one-to-one. For The Order: 1886, Ready At Dawn co-founder Ru Weerasuriya described drawing on London’s history, people, events, and places to make the alternate-history world believable, while moving locations and adding places that did not exist. PlayStation.Blog, June 14, 2013.
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Why invent politicians and companies?
Fictional institutions let a story assign actions, motives, and consequences to characters or organizations created for that story, rather than attributing them to a real officeholder or business. That can support a particular plot or tone, just as an invented city can. It is not a single explanation that applies to every game: the reasons depend on what the story needs and how closely the fictional entity resembles real people or brands.
There can also be legal considerations. Real products, locations, and personalities may raise questions involving trademarks, copyright, and rights of publicity; a GDC Vault session description identifies these as issues developers may encounter when building virtual worlds. Those categories concern different kinds of material, and the relevant rules depend on the specific facts and jurisdiction. GDC Vault, “Building Convincing Virtual Worlds: The Use of IP in Games”.
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Why use a real city instead?
A real place may have distinctive landmarks and local character that an invented counterpart cannot reproduce as effectively. Sucker Punch co-founder Brian Fleming explained that Seattle suited inFAMOUS Second Son in part because “it’s pretty hard to imagine doing Seattle and doing a fictional Space Needle.” He contrasted that choice with the series’ earlier fictional cities: “Obviously Empire City was inspired by New York, and New Marais was inspired by New Orleans.” PlayStation.Blog, March 11, 2014.
Using a real place can also anchor a fictional story in recognizable history and geography. Weerasuriya described preserving recognizable London locations and their relationships for The Order: 1886, even as the game altered the city. That approach draws on real-world identity without requiring an exact map.
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Fictional settings and authenticity are not opposites
Developers can choose different points on a spectrum, depending on what the game needs:
- Invented place, realistic systems: Auroa is fictional, while the game aims for authentic terrain and survival challenges.
- Real place, altered geography: The Order: 1886 draws on historical London but moves or invents locations.
- Fictional counterpart, recognizable inspiration: The cities in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas evoke real American cities while changing names and details.
- Real city and landmarks: inFAMOUS Second Son uses Seattle and the Space Needle as part of its setting’s identity.
The choice turns on how much the story depends on a real place’s history, whether signature landmarks matter, how much control the game needs over its map, and whether the intended tone is documentary, satirical, fantastical, or alternate history.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Does fictionalizing a game world prevent legal trouble?
Not by itself. Fictionalization can be a creative decision and may form part of a project’s risk management, but it does not guarantee legal safety. A city name, a building depiction, a logo, a company name, and a portrayal of a living person raise distinct questions. The Ninth Circuit’s San Andreas discussion concerns one dispute and its circumstances; it is not a universal rule that games must rename places or that a disclaimer resolves every issue. A 2010 Berkeley Technology Law Journal article examines legal and creative trade-offs around architectural depictions in games, but it should be read as scholarship from its publication period, not current legal advice. Berkeley Technology Law Journal, “Architectural Works in Video Games: A Practical Look at the (Lack of) Freedom of Panorama” (2010).
There is no single industry-wide statistic establishing how often developers choose fictional cities, politicians, or companies. The examples show several creative approaches, not a universal formula.
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