First GTA Game Was Almost Canceled

Rockstar has not yet officially announced the existence of GTA V, but fans of the series are presuming that it is already in development and it will be on the biggest launches of 2012 when it comes to video games.

But for all the success of the GTA franchise, it seems that the first title in the series was very close to being canceled, meaning that the entire series could have been erased from the history of gaming.

Gary Penn, one of the developers working at DMA Design on the original GTA title, has said in an interview published on Gamasutra that the first game “was a real mess for years, it never moved on, it never went anywhere”, adding, “It was almost canned. The publisher, BMG Interactive, wanted to can it, as it didn't seem to be going anywhere.”

The developer says that one of the most interesting features of the first GTA was created by accident, recounting that, “One day, I think it was a bug, the police suddenly became mental and aggressive. It was because they were trying to drive through you. Their route finding was screwed I think and that was an awesome moment because suddenly the real drama where, 'Oh my God, the police are psycho -- they're trying to ram me off the road.'”

The first two GTA titles were played from a top down perspective and much of the fun in the experience came from performing elaborate crimes to draw the attention of the police and escalate their response until the army deployed troops to stop the player.

The best way to create mayhem was to get a tank and run wild through the streets of the city.

GTA IV was a blockbuster on launch and fans are speculating that Rockstar is aiming to create another in game world on the scale of Liberty City for the new game in the series.