The recent Xbox documentary series Power On: The Story of Xbox revealed that the team passed on the chance to bring GTA 3 to the original console in 2001 (possibly as an exclusive) — the decision made by some "newly important executives".
Following this, the 'Father of Xbox' Seamus Blackley, who was a key part of the team that created the original Xbox, has admitted that he was one of the people who was "sceptical" about the game's chances, accepting that he was "wrong, but so was everyone else in that room."
"Not going to lie - I was sceptical about the transformation of GTA - a 2D game - into 3D. And I was wrong. But so was everyone else in that room. It goes to show you what big experts we all were."
Blackley also revealed a few more details about the pitch from Rockstar Games. It was reportedly from Dan Houser, the co-founder and president of the company, who actually was much more interested in an Austin Powers project:
"Sam from RS came and pitched. He was really excited about one game - a sure hit - and much less so about another, which he left to the end. That last five minutes was GTA3. The exciting game he was pushing? Austin Powers. True story."
It was pointed out by Blackley in the comments that instances like this "happen all the time", with examples brought up such as Activision rejecting Guitar Hero before later "[buying] the publisher who signed it - just to get it."
He's also not necessarily sure whether GTA 3 would have been Xbox's "second killer app along with Halo", explaining that "it would have been a different game and a different launch." In any case, it just wasn't meant to be...
Would you have bet on GTA 3 for Xbox based on the original games? Let us know in the comments.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 9
I'm sure I'm not the only one, but I always love bits of history like this. Haven't watched the documentary yet. Maybe this weekend?
Either way, thank you for covering stuff like this, and keep it coming!
I find it kind of funny that even the brass of Rockstar wasn't even that enthused about GTA and didn't see it being a huge hit.
At least I don't feel alone in just not getting why GTA is such a huge thing. Even the people who made it didn't think it would be....
Goes to show that the market just makes no sense at all most of the time. I'll never really understand why the masses gravitate to the things they do.
@NEStalgia the very original GTA game had ya playing as the police chasing bad guys. Race an Chase it wa called and some a cleaner or someone randomly commented saying it’d be more fun playing as the bad guys! Hence GTA was born.
@sjbsixpack That's interesting! I've never heard of that before. I remember GTA1, but that was the first time I'd known anything about it.
Having seen where GTA has gone I bet Seamus Blackley still kicks himself daily for what could have been. It's very similar to Shuhei Yoshida declining to publish Demon's Souls outside of Japan, basically giving what became a franchise to Bandai. All because he thought the game was crap.
I think if Microsoft had agreed to have GTA 3 on the original Xbox, that they would of bought Rockstar Games with how popular GTA 3 became when it released and also how well it sold. If that did happen though I don’t think GTA would of been the same as we know it today, so it’s probably a good thing that it just wasn’t meant to be.
He had plenty of reason to be skeptical. Whomever heard of a 2d game making a successful 3D transition?
@NEStalgia yeah, that became the first game. Original game was exactly the same but you play the police. That was never released.
To be fair I would love a good Austin Powers game.
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