Content Cut from Grand Theft Auto III Due to 9/11 Wasn’t That Important

Rockstar Games has revealed more details about the development process of its iconic Grand Theft Auto III game, this time addressing some of the rumors about the content it eliminated from the open world after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

GTA III changed the way we viewed open world games when it was released at the end of 2011, with its huge open world and stunning, at least for that time, graphics.

Now, after the game’s re-release on mobile platforms, in the form of the Grand Theft Auto III: 10 Year Anniversary edition, Rockstar has revealed a few more details about its creation process, while addressing some of the rampant speculation that surrounded the content it cut from the game after September 11.

According to the studio, the total content eliminated from the game, which included just one mission and a few visual details, was around 1 percent of its total length.

“We removed only one mission that referenced terrorists and changed a few other cosmetic details – car details, a couple of pedestrian comments, lines of radio dialogue etc. – the game came out a very short time later. The biggest change was the US packaging which remixed the previous packaging into what became our signature style – because the previous packaging [which was released as the cover of the game in Europe] was, we felt, too raw after 9/11.”

After Rockstar admitted it cut content from GTA 3 after 9/11, plenty of rumors started floating about the things that were removed, with people saying that buildings shaped like the Twin Towers, children on the streets of Liberty City, and much more were deleted by the studio.

The studio also tackled the perennial question regarding the small aircraft called the Dodo, which couldn’t actually fly. As it turns out, this wasn’t among the changes Rockstar made in order to avoid possible terrorism controversy.

“Because we were making a driving and shooting game - even that, as a combination of core gameplay elements, was very, very radical at the time. The Dodo was never meant to be flown very much at all, and it certainly wasn’t grounded as a result of 9/11 – it was just a fun thing that people then went crazy with when they figured out various bugs that let them fly it!”

As you can see, while Rockstar did make some changes to its iconic game after 9/11, there weren’t any major ones.