DMA Design

Rockstar had to fight to get people to care about GTA 3 at E3, former lead recalls, and now GTA 6 is the most anticipated game of the generation

While it may seem wild in retrospect to think there ever was a time where GTA wasn't massive, former Rockstar Games dev Obbe Vermeij says the third game wasn't expected to be huge. The first 3D entry in the crime series defined what an open-world game could be, and alongside the likes of Metal Gear Solid 2 was one of the first PS2 games that felt truly "next-gen." In a post on Twitter, Vermeij posted a photo of Lance Williams, Adam Davidson and Jeremy Pope from Rockstar Games New York at E3 2001 while the Rockstar North (then DMA Design) devs "were back in Scotland fixing bugs." E3 2001 was mere months before the release of GTA 3 that October. Vermeij recalls, "Its success was far from certain," calling Rockstar "the underdogs back then." Latest Videos FromGamesRadar+ He explains that GTA 2 had been seen as a disappointment compared to the original game in terms of sales, and that at E3 "GTA 3 didn’t get much attention at the show." He recalls "people were more interested" in the other Rockstar game being shown at the event, State of Emergency, which would release to mixed reviews the following year. He also explains that many of the people who did end up playing GTA 3 at E3 2001, "thought it was too violent." However, from digging up old previews of the game, GTA 3 E3 2001 previews seemed generally positive, Jeff Gerstmann's GameSpot preview called it "one of our favorite games here at the show," saying of the violence "There’s just something totally wrong–and absolutely hilarious–about beating an old woman with a baseball bat only to have her get up and start throwing punches at you." Meanwhile IGN's Douglass C.

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Rockstar had to fight to get people to care about GTA 3 at E3, former lead recalls, and now GTA 6 is the most anticipated game of the generation

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From top-down crime capers to online open-world heists, GTA has defined play freedom across gaming generations