GTA 5 was the first Grand Theft Auto installment to feature three main protagonists, as everyone knows, but what you may not know is this concept was originally thought up for the 2004 game, GTA: San Andreas.
Today, Rockstar Games studio president Leslie Benzies talked about the idea of the three main characters and how they had previously wanted to utilize it in the previous PS2 game, GTA San Andreas.
"For this one we were down in London and the idea of the three characters popped up again. We’d actually considered it for San Andreas because there were three cities, but it didn’t work from a tech point of view because the three characters need three times as much memory, three types of animation, and so on.
"We throw stuff in the pot, and the good stuff stays and the bad stuff disappears – there are a lot of gatekeepers at the studio, who ensure not much of the chaff makes it through. Some of the good ideas, like the three characters, stick around," Benzies said.
You can imagine that the feasibility was simply not there for when Rockstar was making GTA: San Andreas. That's nearly two generations ago, and if they would've been able to pull the three character story off on the PS2, it would've blown people's minds.
GTA 5 has been one of the most profitable games in the history of gaming, and the game hasn't even been out a month yet. For all of our latest exclusives, previews, reviews and features, follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook. Game On.
Thanks, Develop.
