While it may seem wild in retrospect to think there ever was a time where GTA wasn't massive, former Rockstar Games dev Obbe Vermeij says the third game wasn't expected to be huge.
It's hard to think of many games that on their own completely changed the industry, but GTA 3 is easily one of the biggest. The first 3D entry in the crime series defined what an open-world game could be, and alongside the likes of Metal Gear Solid 2 was one of the first PS2 games that felt truly "next-gen."
In a post on Twitter, Vermeij posted a photo of Lance Williams, Adam Davidson and Jeremy Pope from Rockstar Games New York at E3 2001 while the Rockstar North (then DMA Design) devs "were back in Scotland fixing bugs." E3 2001 was mere months before the release of GTA 3 that October. Vermeij recalls, "Its success was far from certain," calling Rockstar "the underdogs back then."
He explains that GTA 2 had been seen as a disappointment compared to the original game in terms of sales, and that at E3 "GTA 3 didn’t get much attention at the show." He recalls "people were more interested" in the other Rockstar game being shown at the event, State of Emergency, which would release to mixed reviews the following year. He also explains that many of the people who did end up playing GTA 3 at E3 2001, "thought it was too violent."
However, from digging up old previews of the game, GTA 3 E3 2001 previews seemed generally positive, Jeff Gerstmann's GameSpot preview called it "one of our favorite games here at the show," saying of the violence "There’s just something totally wrong–and absolutely hilarious–about beating an old woman with a baseball bat only to have her get up and start throwing punches at you." Meanwhile IGN's Douglass C. Perry said "If you take away all of the incredible level of hip marketing and hype behind the game, Grand Theft Auto III is still a genuine knockout in every category, full stop."
I'm sure no one could've predicted just how huge GTA 3 would be, and in-turn, how much the rest of the franchise would become the biggest thing in games, but there was definitely some eagerness back then from the looks of things, at least from the press side.
