9/11 Influenced ‘Grand Theft Auto III’ Cover, Gave Birth To The Classic Look.

Grand Theft Auto III dropped back in 2001 quite close to the events of 9/11. It almost seems amazing that such a game managed to make its way into the world amid the hysteria and reaction following the events. Not much got taken out, though the game’s classic cover look is a result of that day.

Kotaku:

There was Sept. 11. Then there was Oct. 22, when  Grand Theft Auto III  released, at a time when the United States was extremely high strung about things like the violence and moral relativism for which the series is known. Rockstar Games’ Dan Houser, in a rare interview, said that the game did strip out some content as a concession to the tension of the current times.

“I think one mission got removed,” Houser told IGN. Also, “there was a non-interactive jumbo jet, just to give some life to the sky, that looked like it could pass through a building. That got adjusted, and a few lines of radio dialogue in the talk show. We were really very sensitive to stuff though because we’d watched on our doorstep, you know?”

Further, the game’s box art was redesigned partly because of 9/11. “There was an old box that you can still see online because it was the packaging in Europe. It was the same drawing style but done like an old movie poster with a blown up bridge and some police firing in the air and some helicopters and a bunch of the characters are different sizes,” Houser said. “We thought, ‘that’s a bit heavy, actually, it doesn’t really gel.'”

So the artist came up with the windowpane montage “overnight,” Houser said, the style that has marked  Grand Theft Auto‘s packaging in the 10 years since.

Crazy that both 9/11 and the release of GTA III were ten years ago. The world, it spins. Spins quickly.