“We were worried when we saw Xbox coming” – One ex-PlayStation executive on securing exclusivity for GTA 3 before its upcoming competitor could get to it

We all know that Grand theft auto 3, Vice-villageand San Andreas Yes PS2 classic, but apparently PlayStation made sure they were exclusive because it was afraid Xbox.

GTA is obviously a multi-format series these days, but you probably think of it as a PlayStation series. That will be because Rockstar first succeeded with them on the PS2, with titles like GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas. And as it turns out, these three games were made on purpose for the PS2, not because Sony just felt like it, but because it was worried about the release at the time upcoming version of the original Xbox. Former head of PlayStation Europe, Chris Deering (the same guy who made that comment about how developers should just retire “go to the beach for a year“, so the staunchest of gentlemen) had not lately spoken to him Games business.biz looks back on 30 years of PlayStation, where he talks specifically about getting the exclusive rights for GTA 3 and the two games that followed.

“We were worried when we saw Xbox coming,” Deering explained. “We knew that exclusivity was the name of the game in a lot of areas, like Sky TV with sports. Just as Christmas was approaching with the launch of Xbox, a few of us reached out to our favorite third-party publishers and developers, and asked them, “How would you ask for a special deal if you keep your next-gen game on PlayStation exclusive for two years?”

“And one of the deals we did with Take-Two was for the next three Grand Theft Auto games. At the time, it wasn't clear if Grand Theft Auto 3 was going to be as big as it was, because it used to be. be your game from the top down.”

Deering went on to say that he was “very lucky” for PlayStation at the time, given how successful that series went on to become. Who knows if people would be checking Rockstar's social networks every day for some kind of update Game GTA 6 if GTA 3 had ended Xbox exclusive – as a reminder, the classic console sold only 24 million units compared to 160 million PS2. However, if it had gone multi-format, I think GTA would have done just fine, PlayStation would not have benefited too much. What could be, 'ey!