Key insights
- Sony made GTA exclusive to the PS2 due to concerns about the Xbox.
- The success of GTA 3 on PS2 was unexpected due to gameplay changes.
- The exclusive deal helped boost PS2 sales and GTA's popularity.
A former Sony boss revealed this Grand Theft Auto was a PlayStation 2 exclusive due to the Xbox. The manager recently spoke out in an interview in which he admitted that Sony was worried about the upcoming Microsoft console and that led to three GTA Games are PS2 exclusive.
Grand Theft Auto 3 was a huge success, but its overwhelming popularity came as a bit of a surprise to some members of the game development community. Although it was already an established series, GTA 3 dramatically changed gameplay by switching from a top-down view to a third-person perspective and away from a level-based scoring system. GTA 3 became one of the best-selling games on the PlayStation 2, and that's partly because of that exclusive deal.
Related
Former Grand Theft Auto 5 developer reveals why Rockstar is silent about GTA 6
A former Rockstar Games developer explains why the studio's deafening silence on GTA 6's long-awaited Trailer 2 is likely intentional.
In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, former PlayStation Europe president Chris Deering talked about the PlayStation 2 and Sony's concerns about the then-emerging Xbox console. Deering said the company reached out to some of its “preferred” third-party publishers and developers before the Xbox launch and made them an offer for a two-year exclusivity period. Take-Two was one of those publishers, agreeing to the deal and marketing the next three games on the PlayStation family of consoles. As a result, GTA 3, Vice CityAnd San Andreas All were initially released on PlayStation 2 and will remain exclusively available on PlayStation and PC for the exclusive period.
The GTA deal worked out great for PlayStation and Take-Two
As Deering notes, the deal was a good deal for Take-Two because the publisher “received a discount on the royalty it paid.” GTA likely helped sell PlayStation 2 consoles while enticing those who had already purchased PS2 consoles to try it out GTA as it became more popular. In the end, the above GTA Trilogy became three of the PS2's top five bestsellers over its lifetime GTA 3 come fifth, GTA: Vice City in the third, and GTA: San Andreas in the first.
While the games would eventually be released for the Xbox family of consoles, Xbox gamers had to wait to get their hands on them. Interesting, GTA 6 is currently scheduled to release simultaneously for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, but no announcement has been made yet GTA 6 PC release. It will almost certainly reach this platform at some point, but for now players will have to wait and see when that will happen. As the PlayStation and Xbox families of systems continue to compete with each other, there is virtually no doubt that both consoles will see a massive increase in sales once the game finally hits their platforms.
