This GTA game mode was reportedly in development before being cancelled
Former Rockstar developer Obbe Vermeij provides a behind-the-scenes look at GTA 3's abandoned multiplayer.
Rockstar Games’ most successful game ever – Grand Theft Auto 3, featured an online muliplayer mode that was later dropped by the company.
Alongside GTA 3, GTA Vice City and GTA San Andreas are the only other main entries in the series without online multiplayer.
The overwhelming success of GTA Online, which launched shortly after GTA 5 in October 2013, showcases the franchise's potential as an online multiplayer experience.
GTA 3 could have also featured multiplayer elements had it not been for the developers' late change of heart. The decision to forgo multiplayer in GTA 3 also influenced the direction of the subsequent games in the series.
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Rockstar Games ‘ Technical Director says they ‘coded’ the GTA 3’s online version
On Twitter, former Rockstar Games employee Obbe Vermeij, one of the two Technical Directors who worked on GTA 3, revealed that the action-adventure game initially had a multiplayer mode.
Responding to a fan's question, “do you know why only GTA2 had multiplayer until IV? It was real fun!” Vermeij disclosed that he had “coded” the multiplayer for GTA 3 before it was scrapped. He explained that because the 2001 game's predecessor had a multiplayer mode, it was expected that GTA 3 would feature something similar.
“I coded multiplayer for gta3. Since gta1 & 2 had MP we thought gta3 should have it as well ,” he replied.
Vermeij mentioned that even though the “basic gameplay was working,” Rockstar Games UK (formerly DMA Design/Rockstar North) abandoned the multiplayer component because there was “too much to be done.”
“We tried again for Vice and failed. When SA came around we thought it was too late in the console cycle and settled for the Coop mode. It was only for gta4 that we assigned enough coders and level designers to make it happen,” Vermeij noted.
This led the developers to settle for a co-op mode instead.
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He highlighted that with the release of GTA 4, Rockstar Games hired “enough coders and level designers” to successfully create an online multiplayer mode.
To this day, avid gamers are not getting bored playing GTA 3 even more than two decades after the game hit the amusement markets. The case of such an open-world game can still be seen today with its fans and modders coming up with exciting mods of such a game.
One of the most recent examples is a GTA 3 modder who decided to recreate the game with more advanced features, using elements of the latest GTA title.
