That is an IGN opinion piece from Ryan McCaffrey, who labored at Official Xbox Journal from 2002-2012 throughout the authentic Xbox and Xbox 360 period earlier than becoming a member of IGN, the place he stays “the Xbox man.” In the run-up to Xbox’s twenty fifth anniversary, he’ll be sharing his recollections from the platform’s first quarter-century.
As the vastly anticipated launch of GTA 6 is now simply over two months away, it’s price remembering the way it wasn’t so way back that the Grand Theft Auto video games had been PlayStation exclusives. GTA 3 and Vice Metropolis didn’t see the mild of day on the authentic Xbox till November of 2003 when the pair shipped as the GTA Double Pack, that means that GTA 3 was unique to PS2 for 2 years and Vice Metropolis for one. San Andreas, in the meantime, hit Xbox in June of 2005, a relatively quick eight months after its preliminary PS2 launch.
The purpose is, when then-Head of Xbox Peter Moore – simply the finest showman that’s ever run the Xbox enterprise – rolled up his sleeve to disclose a “tattoo” of the Grand Theft Auto IV brand on his bicep at E3 2006 and announce that not solely would Rockstar’s next-gen GTA ship day-and-date on the Xbox 360, however that Xbox would get not one however two timed-exclusive growth packs (which later turned out to be the wonderful The Misplaced and Damned and the completely chic The Ballad of Homosexual Tony), it was the greatest of huge offers. Microsoft minimize Rockstar a $50 million test for the privilege, however it was price it. Not less than to Xbox 360 players, a lot of whom had invested in Microsoft’s first-to-market HD Period next-gen console after its extremely sturdy out-of-the-gate exhibiting with video games like Name of Responsibility 2, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Ghost Recon Superior Warfighter, and Combat Evening Spherical 3 all being verified next-gen powerhouses earlier than the E3 2006 Xbox press convention – and earlier than the PS3 even shipped.
Microsoft had gotten off to an enormous begin (as Moore used to say, “The primary one to 10 million wins”), and with this GTA 4 deal, the firm had proven that it was standing behind the tens of millions of players who had “jumped in” with the Xbox 360 in its early days. Xbox 360 players wouldn’t be second-class residents when it got here to the trade’s greatest franchise.
And when GTA 4 lastly obtained launched in April of 2008 (after a delay from Fall 2007), it was, after all, a from-the-ground-up masterpiece that shared nothing in frequent, technologically talking, with the GTA 3 trilogy. It took us again to Liberty Metropolis, albeit a totally reimagined one which seemed unimaginable and was full of small particulars and stuff to do. It’s, in my humble opinion, the funniest of all of the satirically sensible GTA video games, because it featured the hilarious in-game web (accessible at web cafes…bear in mind these?), memorable characters like Brucie, and laugh-out-loud in-universe TV exhibits like “The Males’s Room.”
Talking very personally, it additionally got here out very shortly after I obtained divorced, and I’ve actually significant recollections of my finest good friend Robert flying up from Arizona proper after it got here out to maintain me firm and revel in the sport with me. There was no GTA On-line again then, after all, so we’d simply move the controller backwards and forwards, every reveling in (and laughing together with) the loopy antics of the individual with the gamepad of their hand. We should’ve put a couple of dozen hours into GTA 4 in the few days he stayed with me, and I’ll all the time affiliate GTA 4 with a much-needed little bit of enjoyable and levity and friendship in a second after I wanted it most.
Later, as I discussed, The Misplaced and the Damned dropped (and stayed unique to Xbox for over a yr), and its give attention to the biker gang of the identical title was a brilliant cool pivot on the typical GTA formulation. And later nonetheless, The Ballad of Homosexual Tony (a six-month Xbox 360 unique) featured impeccable storytelling and character work by Rockstar; heck, I’d personally rank it amongst the finest DLCs or expansions for any sport, ever. After which at the tail finish of the Xbox 360 era we obtained GTA 5…although sadly no single-player DLC in any respect, as initially promised, not to mention unique DLC.
Anyway, I’d argue that GTA 4’s simultaneous launch on Xbox 360 and subsequent unique DLC may’ve been the place the Xbox model peaked from a cultural perspective. You needed to have an Xbox 360 – if not for the killer lineup of video games it already had, then for the unique GTA 4 expansions. It was proper up there with the launch of Halo 3 in 2007. In reality, Fall of 2007 – which noticed the launch of Halo 3, Mass Impact, BioShock, Name of Responsibility 4: Fashionable Warfare, Rock Band, and Murderer’s Creed – by means of GTA 4’s launch in April of 2008 is perhaps the finest six-or-so-month run any console has ever had.
Ryan McCaffrey
Govt Editor
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s government editor of previews and host of IGN’s weekly Xbox present, Podcast Unlocked, and a co-host of Subsequent-Gen Console Watch. He is a North Jersey man, so it is “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.