Grand Theft Auto 3: Was in conversation as exclusive title for the Xbox

The release of Grand Theft Auto 3 (from 3.99 € at buy) is now almost exactly 20 years back. Nevertheless, the Open World Action game of these days comes back to the headlines — and not only because of the technical to start rather deb risen republication as part of the Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy — The Definitive Edition. Because even in the documentation Power On, which deals with the history of the Xbox, an interesting detail will reveal: Grand Theft Auto 3 would almost have become an exclusive game for the first Xbox console.

As shown in the third chapter of the Roku, in 2001, a then small team with a pitch at Microsoft presented to offer a game for a potential exclusive release. However, Microsoft issued a cancellation and should surely regret it. Because the team was nobody lower than Rockstar Games, where pitch was about GTA 3. Microsoft was not convinced that Rock star would be able to implement his visions and also the comparatively moderate sales figures of the two-dimensional predecessors did not carry a lot helped to awaken a great deal of interest.

Of course, we know what the whole thing took after this rejection. Rockstar Games was introduced to Sony and received the surcharge after some negotiations. Thus, Grand Theft Auto 3 in October 2001 came to the market for the PS2 in October 2001 and became a huge sales hit. Only two years later, the Open World Action game also appeared for the first Xbox console.