If you appreciate the work done within the wiki, please consider supporting The Cutting Room Floor on Patreon. Thanks for all your support!

User:SodaDog/Prerelease:Grand Theft Auto V

From The Cutting Room Floor
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This cactus is UNDER CONSTRUCTION
This article is a work in progress.
...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.
Hmmm...
To do:
{{{1}}}


This page details prerelease information and/or media for SodaDog.

Grand Theft Auto V is known to be one of the biggest video games of all time, both critic and developmental-wise.

Development Timeline

Grand Theft Auto V's development began right after Grand Theft Auto IV, and a lot of things had to be kept behind the scenes during the first few years of development. After the game was officially revealed, they further planned on trying to create a re-imagined Los Santos, with elements inspired and taken from the real-life counterpart of Los Angeles.

Sadly, a lot of content had to be cut either because some things didn't fit in well with the game, the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 had technical hardware limitations (as they considered the game for next-generation consoles) or to make room for Grand Theft Auto Online's exclusive features. Even though so much had to be cut from the chopping block, Grand Theft Auto V managed to become one of the best-selling video games of all time.

2008

  • Apr/May - Grand Theft Auto V starts development after Grand Theft Auto IV was released for the PlayStation 3 & Xbox 360.
  • Late Jul/Aug - The website domain name for www.grandtheftautov.com was registered by Rockstar Games. [1]
  • Dec. 2nd-3rd - Grand Theft Auto IV is released for Windows.

2009

  • Jan. - Rockstar Games was prepared to release a new Grand Theft Auto title in time for the holiday season, though they didn't mention anything about Grand Theft Auto V and wouldn't be out by the "holiday season".
  • Feb. 17th - The Lost And Damned is released for the Xbox 360.
  • Apr. 20th - The earliest date present in the leaked builds.xml file.
  • Jul. 14th - Grand Theft Auto V is first heard of and is confirmed to be in development by an industry analyst.
  • Oct. 29th - The Ballad Of Gay Tony is released for the Xbox 360.
  • Nov. 13th - The first official mention of a new Grand Theft Auto game is seen on The Sunday Times, a British newspaper.[2] Though the setting and characters weren't planned, but Houser stated that the script will be "1,000 pages long".

2010

  • Apr. 13th - Episodes From Liberty City (including the two DLCs) was released for the PlayStation 3 and Windows.
  • Jul. 26th - The setting for Grand Theft Auto V is rumored at VG24/7, which was rumored to be based in Hollywood.[3] According to Eurogamer, it was revealed that Rockstar developers went there to research locations for the setting.
  • Nov. 22nd - The "Rush" casting call was first posted onto the internet.

2011

  • Jan. 7th - Mar. - The domain names of the fictitious Grand Theft Auto V websites were registered, and discovered by VG24/7.
  • Mar. - The "Rush" casting call is discovered by the public and was rumored to be related to Grand Theft Auto V.
  • Jul. 22nd - Brendan McNamara considers using facial recognition technology from L.A. Noire for future titles developed by Rockstar Games, including Grand Theft Auto V.
  • Oct. 11th - An official response from Rockstar claims that they didn't have "anything to announce" about a new instalment.[4]
  • Oct. 25th - Grand Theft Auto V is officially announced by Rockstar Games on their website and social media feed. Though, rumors of "multiple protagonists" started to build up. [5]
  • Nov. 2nd - The very first trailer for Grand Theft Auto V was officially revealed by Rockstar Games.
  • Dec. 12th - Dan Houser has commented that the Los Santos will be the only major city featured, and the surrounding countryside according to GameInformer. He further stated that the map will be "very big".[6]

2012

  • Feb. 13th - After getting multiple questions for new information about Grand Theft Auto V, Rockstar Games says that more information about the game will be revealed in a "few months' time".[7]
  • Mar. 9th & 14th - Grand Theft Auto V is listed with a release date window for Fall 2012, though not officially by Rockstar.
  • May 9th - Industry analysts speculate that Grand Theft Auto V could see a release in 2012.
  • May 12th - Max Payne 3, a game that uses Grand Theft Auto V assets was released in North America and Eruope.
  • Jul. - Take-Two Interactive claims that Grand Theft Auto V is in full development, and the first two screenshots were released to the public. They also confirmed that the game still had a "TBA" release.
  • Aug 22nd - More screenshots of Grand Theft Auto V were released.
  • Oct. - A leaked poster from UK retailer GAME reveals a release date for Spring 2013.
  • Oct. 30th - Rockstar Games officially announces Grand Theft Auto V for a Spring 2013 release date. [8]
  • Late Oct. - Grand Theft Auto V is considered for next-generation consoles, though the company still plans on releasing it for the PlayStation 3 first, rather than as a PlayStation 4 launch title.
  • Nov. 2nd - The second trailer for Grand Theft Auto V was delayed due to Hurricane Sandy, which was where Rockstar NYC's offices are located.[9]
  • Nov. 5th - Grand Theft Auto V is officially open for pre-order, from various gaming outlets. [10]
  • Nov. 12th - Grand Theft Auto V is considered for the Wii U, and was the first mention of a PC release, which was expected to come out months after the game is released.[11]
  • Nov. 14th - The second trailer (which depicts some cutscenes of the story and characters) came out, this time with a Spring 2013 release. Around that time, Grand Theft Auto Online was teased.
  • Nov. 16th - Several questions about the video game was answered by Rockstar Games.
  • Nov. 26-30th - A contest was held to win photo-viewers, which contained five exclusive screenshots of the game.
  • Dec. 23rd - Five new screenshots of Grand Theft Auto V were released on Rockstar's official website, to coincide with the holiday season.

2013

  • Jan. 31st - The game is delayed to September 17 for "polish". Around that time, a lot of fans made conspiracy theories which would later be denied by Rockstar Games.
  • Mar. 27th - Ten new images of the game were posted, almost two months after Grand Theft Auto V got delayed.
  • Late Mar./Apr. - The iconic cover art was teased by a New York City-based mural designer, and was officially revealed by Rockstar once the mural was complete.
  • Apr. 29th - The Epsilon Program website starts to offer fans for a chance to be in the video game as cult members for a limited time.
  • May 3rd-7th - Several new screenshots of the game were posted, while select video game critics got to experience the demo version of the game.
  • May 17th - The crews feature for Grand Theft Auto V was unveiled, and explained it would be for Online.
  • May 23rd - The special edition of Grand Theft Auto V was revealed.
  • May 27th - Entries for the Epsilon Program casting contest were closed.
  • Jun. 11th - Nine new screenshots of Grand Theft Auto V were uploaded.
  • Jul. 2nd - Rockstar Games reveals the Xbox 360 disc-installing requirement for Grand Theft Auto V. While the PlayStation 3 version was mentioned, the final retail release only ended up shipping with one disc. Also, various questions were answered from fans on that day.
  • Jul. 9th - Another trailer for the game was released, showing off actual gameplay with minor changes.
  • Jul. 15th - An article from Japanese magazine Famitsu reveals the Japanese release date of October 10th.[12]
  • Jul. 31st - Grand Theft Auto V earns an R18+ age rating by the MPAA in Australia.
  • Aug. 15th - Grand Theft Auto V gets an M age rating by the ESRB, with a trailer for Online being released on the following day.
  • Aug. 17th - The Achievements for Grand Theft Auto V were leaked on Xbox360Achievements. Though it only applied to the Xbox 360 version, it would later be the same for the PlayStation 3.
  • Aug. 23rd - Parts of Grand Theft Auto V was leaked on the European PSN store, though a lot of them were the same as the final iteration.
  • Aug. 25th - Grand Theft Auto V goes gold, thus ending development of the video game.
  • Sep. 6th - The winners of the Epsilon Program cult members were revealed.
  • Sep. 13th - The official website of Grand Theft Auto V is updated once more, featuring several images with minor changes.
  • Sep. 17th - Grand Theft Auto V is released in North America and Europe.
  • Oct. 10th - Grand Theft Auto V is released in Japan.

Subpages

[[File:| center | | 60px]] 2008-2010
Not even putting palm trees in Liberty City would prove those rumors as true.
[[File:| center | | 60px]] 2011
Los Santos looked palmier than ever!
[[File:| center | | 60px]] 2012
The year when the game was being hyped to death.
[[File:| center | | 60px]] 2013
The big delay, save for a few last-minute changes.
[[File:| center | | 60px]] Portfolios
Things were different back then...

2008-2010

Not much information is known on the pre-announcement of the video game except that (according to some files) Grand Theft Auto V started development back in the middle of 2008, when Grand Theft Auto IV was released and started to be built off of the same engine.[13] On July 14, 2009, Grand Theft Auto V was revealed to be in development according to an industry analyst and was reported on several gaming websites.[14]

When Strauss Zenick of Take-Two Interactive was asked about Grand Theft Auto V from an industry analyst sometime in August/September, he said that game would not be announced for a long time.

On November 13, 2009, Dan Houser confirmed on British newspaper, The Sunday Times that a new Grand Theft Auto instalment was in the works. However, the setting or characters weren't decided at that time and the script would be "about 1,000 pages long".[2]

Los Angeles Area Research

After the setting had been decided, some Rockstar developers visited Los Angeles around July 26, 2010[3]. They spent a minimum of "100 days" researching the areas, conversing with locals (including gang members and FBI agents) and looking at places like a prison.

For news and media at that time, the "Hollywood" setting became a major rumor in the next installment of the Grand Theft Auto franchise.

Leaked Rush Casting Call

The rumors started to circulate more when a casting call for "Rush" was discovered in March 2011, which was posted on November 22, 2010.[15][16] People believed that it was the next Grand Theft Auto game since it was circulated by Telsey & Company, that has since worked with Rockstar Games in previous instalments. The casting names were competely different and includes two scrapped characters known as "Mrs. Avery" and "Mrs. Bell", both of which were called "Mrs. A" and "Mrs. B". The page was removed in early 2012, but that didn't stop the Wayback Machine from archiving it.

Things generally stayed quiet again until the announcement.

2011

Domain registrations

Five domain names for the fictitious websites (Lifeinvader.com, SixFigureTemps.com, StopPayingForYourMortgage.com, HammersteinFuast.com and CashForDeadDreams.com) were registered in the month of January 2011, with the LifeInvader one being the earliest which was on January 7, 2011. In the next few months, more of the domain names were registered.[17]

Trailer Reveal

On October 25, 2011, the very first gameplay trailer for Grand Theft Auto V was officially released by Rockstar Games. While it didn't show much of the storyline or the protagonists, It showed what the world and setting would be like. This got a lot of players speculating that a lot of things from the 3D Universe would return (as judged from the lookalikes), even those rumors quickly turned out to be false over time.

Also, there are a LOT of differences present in the trailer, whether it be minor or not. Some of the assets were taken either from Grand Theft Auto IV and Max Payne 3, and the game seemed to be very complete at that time.

Hmmm...
To do:
More.

Main Differences

  • Most of the pedestrian animations were likely motion-captured just for the trailer, and aren't really seen in the final game.
  • Notably, a lot more foliage can be seen. It was likely cut due to the last-generation consoles not being able to handle a lot of detail within a single range. What's worse, not much of the foliage was restored for next-generation releases!
    • On the same topic, some of the foilage was "cut-paste" and weren't rotated around that much.
  • A handful of the props seen in the trailer was removed in the final PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 release. Though, some of them were restored in the next-generation releases.
  • A few of the visual effects present in the trailer were likely made with aftereffects, or over-saturated to give the player a good first impression of the game.
  • The sun position of the sky is changed, and is a lot brighter than usual.
  • Some of the car traffic or AI seems to be unpolished, resulting them in crashing more often or not stopping at the right times.
  • The sunset overlooking Los Santos was slightly different, and the skyline seemed to be slightly incomplete.
  • There was originally a heat haze effect that could have been seen from the distance.[18]

Visual Differences

  • There weren't many waves in the water, and resembled the ones from Grand Theft Auto IV.
  • The engine sound of the red Rapid GT vehicle was different.
  • The scene with the woman pedestrian crossing the road had poor ambient occlusion.
  • The animation of the ped (which might have been an earlier version of Franklin) putting his arm on the vehicle while driving is not used at all. Strange enough, it was reused in the next-generation exclusive Grand Theft Auto Online: Lowriders DLC.
  • The Pißwasser and ECola billboard had a slightly different design.
  • Some of the boxes on the curb and sidewalk were rearranged.
  • The fire hydrant was colored red instead of yellow.
  • Behind one of the windmills, A plane that heavily resembles the Dodo can be seen flying.
  • A lot more bushes were present in the windmill farm.
  • The glitchy tree behind Martin Madrazzo's house was redesigned.
  • The highway signs were originally a darker green.
  • The construction site was a lot smaller and underdeveloped.
  • The building in the distance of the highway had no Banner Hotel & Spa logo on it.
  • The animation Michael De Santa does is never seen in the final game.
  • Some of the buildings in the background of the house in Mirror Park were redesigned. The house itself also looked more run-down.
  • Palm trees were present in Blaine County.
  • The oil extractor prop overlooking the skyline of Los Santos was changed in color.

Minor Differences

  • The build of the game uses quite a few elements from Grand Theft Auto IV, as the game is built off the same engine.
  • The person practicing Yoga at what would be Martin Madrazzo's house in the final is wearing a white tank top. It was changed to green.
  • The decals on the bench of Vespucci Beach aren't present in the final version. Also, the palm trees were slightly thinner.
  • Some of the pedestrians had different reflections on them, which are highly resmiscent of Grand Theft Auto IV.
  • The box in the alleyway was changed from purple to grey.
  • The skyline of the city wasn't changed all that much. Though, some of the buildings seemed to be unfinished.
  • The pesticide particles generated from the plane were a lot more persistent.
  • The Bugstar gas mask looked slightly different.
  • The Sentinel car resembled more like the one from Grand Theft Auto IV, judging from the matte color. Also, the billboard wasn't present.
  • The crane in the background had a slightly different design.
  • The small palm tree under the East Los Santos freeway was cut. Also, the lights under that same freeway were on during the daytime.
  • The animation of the ped resting under the freeway tunnel was changed in the final version.
  • The hedges beside the Banner Hotel & Spa wasn't present.
  • There is a misplaced tree outside of the East Los Santos freeway which was later removed.
  • The yellow trash can was smaller and wasn't textured right.
  • The "2405" address (An easter egg releating to Dan Houser's birthday) was replaced
  • The rear light of the Futo car was exactly taken from Grand Theft Auto IV.
  • The pedestrian putting in the "For Sale" sign at a house in Mirror Park had a slightly different shirt with rolled up sleeves and brown shoes.
  • The Ballas and Vagos graffiti wasn't present at the Ace Liquor store in Blaine County.
  • The tramp pedestrian doesn't hold a sign at all in the final game. Though, the prop is found in the files of the final game, just unused. Also, the animation to go with it was likely made just for the trailer because the animation is called "Bum Freeway".
  • The drunk woman under the freeway is shown using the same "drunk" animation from Grand Theft Auto IV. Also, some of the junked items had less detail and different colors.
  • The man that resembles Michael De Santa at Tequi-La-La is likely an earlier version of the Buisness_02 young pedestrian.

Other Differences

  • In the Loud Approach of the Jewel Store Job, Bugstars equipment were used.
  • The scene with the Sentinel car are two different scenes shot. That is because the first scene is set from morning and the second is set in the mid-afternoon.
  • For some reason in the final version, the pedestrians turn away from the trash pile from the Mirror Park house for sale rather than walk past it.
  • Prostitutes could've originally be found in Blaine Country as well as in Los Santos.
  • The Hydra seen in the trailer isn't seen at all in the final game. It didn't even appear in the game for a long time until an update for Grand Theft Auto Online. Also, the flamelights were orange instead of purple.
  • The Vader bike seen at the Tequi-La-La at night is taken from Episodes From Liberty City.
(Source: DeGenerator - Grand Theft Auto V Trailer Analysis BETA)

Leaked Official PlayStation Magazine UK Report?

On November 5, 2011, a few select members who work for Official PlayStation Magazine UK was invited to Rockstar North's offices likely on October 18, 2011 to see a 30-minute gameplay footage of the video game, which was a week before the trailer was revealed. While it was saved for their January 2012 issue, one of the employees written a execessively-detailed description of their experience of the earlier build of the game, which was posted on GTAForums.

  • It was said that the world would be four times the size of Liberty City from the previous game. In the end, the entire landmass of Grand Theft Auto V is just slightly bigger than Liberty City. Though, it's possible that the person was referring to the island of Algonquin (where the city skyline is located) since the size of that matches up with Los Santos.
  • There would be "nearly 100 NPCs doing machinery, operating vehicles, lifting and loaded, etc." But in the final game, a lot of those NPCs aren't seen at all.
  • While the NPCs that were camping in the forest made it to the final game, the forests ended up being bare even though it would look "more beautiful than Red Dead Redemption". Though, there were more trees present in earlier screenshots, which were cut due to limitations.
  • A ton of interiors were present, including "a shopping mall, college campus, police station, a huge hospital". Only the hospital (which is seen in a damaged state) made it to the final cut, as a Strangers and Freaks mission.
  • Weapons like "flamethrowers, remote mines, laxer trip mines and claymores" would appear, but none of them ended up making the cut. interestingly, flamethrowers were originally intended for Grand Theft Auto IV.
  • The reviewer mentioned that darts were cut from the game, even though it ended up making it's way there. While some activities were retooled for Grand Theft Auto Online, others were cut. Examples include cannoeing, ab-saling, rock climbing are nowhere mentioned in the leaked production files, and were likely planned rather than implemented.
  • People were originally going to be grabbed as "shields" or in hostage situations, like in Saints Row 2. It was scrapped, but mentioned in the leaked production files.
  • The Police were originally going to use additional weapons, like tear gas, guard dogs and riot gear to knock doors down inside houses, but in the final game they simply just break inside the house.
  • It mentions breaking inside houses, which could be done in a similar vein to the burglary missions in San Andreas, and using objects as barricade, but it's not mentioned at all and was likely planned.
  • While torrential rainfall and sunshine appeared in the final game, tremors do not appear at all. However, they are included as unused weather effect.

In conclusion, a handful of these things ended up being true while a lot of the other points ended up being cut. Though, some of the information seems to have been confused over and made up, meaning the source may not be real.


(Source: https://www.vg247.com/2011/11/05/rumor-supposed-gta-v-information-outed-by-uk-playstation-magazine-employee/ VG247 - Supposed GTA V Information outed by UK PlayStation Magazine Employee)
(Source: http://gtaforums.com/topic/490646-gta-v-trailer-1/page-41#entry1060829454 GTAForums Post)

Portfolios

References

<references>