Sony’s move to make a series of “Grand Theft Auto” entries as exclusive PlayStation titles was apparently influenced by the release of Microsoft’s Xbox, reveals former PlayStation EU President.
Well, Rockstar’s GTA series being exclusive to PlayStation wasn’t just an unplanned move. According to an interview with Chris Deering (via GamesIndustry.Biz), a former PlayStation official, it is revealed that the franchise was purposefully limited to Sony’s game consoles in an attempt to steer off interest in the upcoming “Xbox” release at that time. Deering says that folks at PlayStation were apparently “worried” about Microsoft’s console, and the idea of making the Grand Theft Auto franchise exclusive popped up “randomly”.
We were worried when we saw Xbox coming. 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 out to our favourite third-party publishers and developers, and we asked them, ‘How would you like a special deal if you keep your next generation game on 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
So, the Sony x Take-Two partnership was driven by Microsoft’s Xbox release, and it won’t be wrong to say that this decision has been pivotal for the success of Sony’s past consoles and the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Ultimately, the collaboration was a win-win for both parties, and whether this move managed to overshadow the Xbox release is now a thing of the past.
For Grand Theft Auto 6, exclusivity for PlayStation is certainly out of the equation for now since the franchise is expected to follow a similar release strategy to what they did with GTA 5. That means consoles first, then other platforms such as PC.
