Microsoft screwed up with “GTA 3”, Though it Could Have Been an Xbox Exclusive
Grand Theft Auto III was a landmark release in gaming history. It transformed 2D top-down road traffic chaos into a 3D, fully-explorable virtual city. I’m sure I spent a lot of time playing at my mate’s house, which was not what I had planned. Its October 2001 release on PlayStation 2 and then versions for Xbox and PC were followed by Xbox 360, and Xbox One versions was a game-changer for the entire games industry. But, that could have been a very different history.
This might be something you know already, but if not, congratulations! You’re the type of person everyone wants to have on their pub quiz team. The rest of us were surprised to learn that Grand Theft Auto III was an Xbox exclusive.
This trivial nugget comes from the Power On The Story of Xbox documentary. You can find more information here. The embedded clip shows that Grand Theft Auto III was offered to Xbox, but they declined. The game was released on PS2 first, and it wasn’t released for Xbox until 2003.
Kevin Bachus (head of third-party relationships for Xbox from 1999 to 2001, and today a senior VP at Dave and Buster’s) tells us:
“One day, we presented (to Microsoft executives) a new idea by a small games publisher who wanted to resurrect one of their 2D games for PC. They will invest in it because they believe it will be fascinating.
The execs weren’t moved. They weren’t convinced that the game could go from 2D to 3D. Bachus adds: “They felt it was complex, they didn’t understand the user interface and they believed it was based upon a game that had not been very successful.” It was rejected, to my surprise.
Yes, Xbox lost Grand Theft Auto III, a game that sold over 14 million copies worldwide in 2001, despite being released at the end. Microsoft, you made a wrong decision. But you did get the game (and it’s not as if that little thing called halo didn’t work out so poorly for you). GTA is still in development. However, GTA Online will be receiving a brand new story expansion featuring Dre on December 15. , which you can find out more about…
