Key Takeaways
- PlayStation signed the original exclusivity deal with Take-Two in preparation for the launch of the original Xbox.
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas went on to become the best-selling PS2 game ever.
- The era of timed exclusivity is over for Grand Theft Auto.
Former PlayStation boss Chris Deering revealed in an interview with GamesIndustry.Biz that the company’s exclusivity deal for Grand Theft Auto was penned in preparation for the launch of the original Xbox in 2001.
“We were worried when we saw Xbox coming,” Deering began. “We knew exclusivity was the name of the game in a lot of fields, like Sky TV with sports. Just as Christmas was approaching when Xbox would launch, a few of us went to our favourite third-party publishers and developers, and we asked them, ‘How would you like a special deal if you kept your next generation game as a PlayStation exclusive for a two-year period?’ And one of the deals we made was with Take-Two for the next three Grand Theft Auto games. At the time, it wasn’t clear that Grand Theft Auto 3 was going to be as huge as it was, because it used to be a top-down game.”
“It was very lucky for us. And actually lucky for them, because they got a discount on the royalty they paid. Those deals aren’t uncommon in industries with platforms. Including today with things like social media,” Deering finished.
Grand Theft Auto Used To Be PlayStation First
Grand Theft Auto 3, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas were all timed exclusives on the PlayStation 2, often releasing approximately a year later on PC and Xbox. The concept of timed exclusivity is more relevant now than ever, but it happened back in the early days of the “console wars” between PlayStation and Xbox.
The deal was certainly a lucrative one for both parties, as Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas became the best-selling PlayStation 2 game of all time, a wildly popular console. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is the third best-selling and Grand Theft Auto 3 is the fifth best-selling.
Nowadays, Grand Theft Auto releases simultaneously on Xbox and PlayStation but prior to the release of Grand Theft Auto 4, the series was certainly a system seller for PlayStation.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas brings the action to a fictionalised west coast of America. Set in the early 1990s in the cities of Los Santos, San Fierro, and Las Venturas, you play as Carl Johnson as he is drawn back into a life of crime.