It’s amazing how much they don’t want us to see details from the past that we didn’t know before…

If a game was released more than twenty years ago, it might be safe to share some development secrets, anecdotes or even footage on social media. But Take-Two and Rockstar North simply refuse to allow it. Obbe Vermeij was formerly the CTO of Rockstar North (according to his LinkedIn profile, he held the position from 1995 to 2009 and worked on Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City, San Andreas and IV), and we learned from him that Grand Theft Auto III’s curious Easter egg about the moon being shootable with a sniper rifle was left in the game because of a dispute between two artists.

Vermeij started a blog in which he shared behind-the-scenes secrets about the development of the four Grand Theft Auto games in question (as well as some of his time at Rockstar North), including the fact that Grand Theft Auto III (the game that laid the groundwork for the success of the franchise) briefly had a deathmatch mode… but an email came from his former employer. He said he didn’t think anyone would mind if he wrote about 20-year-old games, but it seems he was wrong, because it would supposedly ruin the Rockstar mystique… so all that’s left is the farewell post, and he’s taken everything else down.

Sadly, this is not the first time this has happened. Last year, Mike Dailly, a founding member of the studio, posted some prototype videos on YouTube that were taken down due to copyright claims. He too was frustrated and felt he should have some ownership. He replied to Vermeij on Twitter and did not think that anything seriously offensive had been shared on the blog. He also regrets that this farcical situation has developed.

It’s amazing that you can’t share anything from games, and even their mods are kicked off the internet by Take-Two…

Source: PCGamer