While GTA 6 is currently all set to release simultaneously on both PS5 and Xbox Series X|S when it eventually launches next November (a year as of yesterday, hang in there, folks), that wasn't a luxury Xbox always had. In fact, one former Xbox exec says Rockstar needed convincing that Microsoft's console wasn't "going to be a flop" in order to get the series on there.
Speaking in a new interview with Eurogamer for the Xbox 360's anniversary, Peter Moore – former corporate vice president of Microsoft's home and entertainment division who was responsible for all Xbox marketing and operations – talks about bringing GTA to Xbox. GTA 4 was the first Grand Theft Auto game to arrive on Xbox (specifically, the 360) at the same time as the rival PlayStation release (on a date Moore got a tattoo to advertise) – before that, the releases of Vice City and GTA 3 respectively arrived a year and two years after they did on Sony's consoles. The series' earlier entries never arrived on Microsoft's hardware at all.
Moore says bringing GTA to Xbox was "a big moment." He explains: "If you weren't around in those days, the GTA franchise was a PlayStation exclusive. To their credit, PlayStation had bet on GTA 3 and from there on had done a deal and more credit to them. But we needed GTA. We needed that franchise and everything going forward from Rockstar on our platform."
So, Xbox "bet big on that and came to an agreement," with Moore making reference to his infamous tattoo: "Of course it needed a tattoo." This involved Moore's team getting together and asking, "what is it going to take? What can we do that has a little bit of Xbox 360 exclusivity in there? Is there a map, is there something in there? Are there Easter eggs?"
But the agreement wasn't just about money, it was about convincing Rockstar that the platform was worthwhile.
"Money's important, but they needed convincing that their development resources, which needed to be shifted to Xbox SDKs, weren't going to be wasted if the console was going to be a flop," Moore explains, adding that "you can get paid all the money in the world to cover all your costs, but if it doesn't sell, that's an opportunity cost to the developer that they could have deployed on a console that would sell."
Thankfully though, Rockstar and owner Take-Two Interactive "joined us and believed in us, and it all worked out for all of us."
