To make GTA 4 a next-gen game, Rockstar abandoned many characteristic solutions from San Andreas
Seventeen years ago, Grand Theft Auto 4 was released, and to mark the occasion, one of the game's developers shared some interesting facts about the game.
Right now, many players are eagerly awaiting the release of Grand Theft Auto 6, which, for now, is scheduled for this fall.
Today is an important day for fans of the fourth installment of the series, as it celebrates its 17th birthday. On this occasion, one of the former Rockstar employees, Obbe Vermeij, shared a few interesting facts about this iconic game on X.
- To make the game "truly next-gen," the developers had to leave out many elements known from GTA: San Andreas. The talk is, among other things, about statistics, a larger number of cities, sneaking, diving, bicycles, tanks, or modifying cars. The reason was the long working time required to create them in the new standard.
- The missions were designed to fit the storyline. Previously, it was usually done the other way around.
- The Xbox 360 became the main platform for GTA 4, as working on the PS3 was causing difficulties for the devs.
- Rockstar San Diego created the Rage engine, which replaced the RenderWare engine.
- The online mode assumed two stages from the very beginning. The first one is a basic online game for 32 players created together with GTA 4, and the second one is the full-fledged mode known today as GTA Online, released with GTA 5.
Vermeij left Rockstar Games nine months after the release of GTA 4. As he himself admitted, "work no longer gave him as much pleasure as it once did." He expected that the series would become darker and more serious, but GTA 5 proved him wrong. However, in the comment, he conveyed that he doesn't regret his decision.
