A former Rockstar employee has revealed the developer’s saga with multiplayer aspects of the Grand Theft Auto series, revealing how GTA Online was in the works for GTA 3.
GTA Online, introduced alongside GTA 5, remains one of the most popular multiplayer games today. Even after launching more than a decade ago, the title still attracts close to 100,000 players daily on Steam alone. Interestingly, new insights have revealed that we could have had this experience all the way back in 2001.
GTA 3 Could Have been the Start of GTA Online
Spotted by GamesRadar+, former Rockstar employee Obbe Vermeij recently spoke about Rockstar experimenting with different types of multiplayer and online offerings for several GTA titles. The multiplayer features were available with the very first title of the series, with GTA 1 and 2 offering LAN multiplayer. However, the game state had to be “100% deterministic”, which meant that “every game had to run in perfect sync, at the framerate of the slowest PC.”
The real groundwork for an online multiplayer mode began with GTA 3. Vermeij explains that he prototyped “a simple deathmatch” for this game, which allowed players to kill each other, drag each other out from cards, and respawn in the city. However, the mode never came to fruition due to timing constraints. The developers were not able to work on “lobbies, scripts working over network, etc,” and decided to scrap it.
A multiplayer push returned with GTA Vice City, with Rockstar hiring several network coders. However, they again ran out of time and abandoned the mode. There was no push for online multiplayer in GTA San Andreas, as it was the last PS2-era game. Hence, they went for a local co-op mode instead.
The online aspect was finally brought to life with GTA 4, thanks to Rockstar hiring four programmers and several level designers who worked full-time. And now, with GTA 5, the online mode is better than ever, providing a solid multiplayer experience, blended with new narratives, evolving PvP and PvE experiences, and so much more. It will be exciting to see what innovations Rockstar can bring with GTA 6.
In other news, GTA 6’s story was reportedly rejected 3 times. What are your thoughts on GTA 3 having an online mode? Let us know below and join the official Insider Gaming forums discussion.
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