A new leak suggests that GTA Online will be a 2001 project

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Rockstar Games’ GTA Online was released in October 2013 as a multiplayer mode for Grand Theft Auto 5. Today, it’s one of the company’s most successful ventures, but recent leaks suggest it may have originally been a 2001 project. Design documents for some Grand Theft Auto titles appear to have leaked online on December 25, 2024, and plans for a multiplayer mode for Grand Theft Auto 3 are said to be mentioned in them.

According to X user @videotechuk_, an active GTA community member on the forum, this canceled GTA Online 2001 project reportedly had plans to integrate features such as character customization, a skill system, and the ability to own assets.

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Obe Vermey, former technical director at Rockstar North, gave some insight on X after the new GTA leak on Christmas Day. He said the project has been in the works for a few weeks and that Rockstar Vancouver (formerly Barking Dog Studios) was contacted to explore the design.

Note: Part of this article is based on a breach. Readers are advised to take the information contained herein with a grain of salt.

Former Rockstar Games dev talks about the release of GTA Online 2001 project

Obe Vermey has revealed that he wrote the basic implementation of Deathmatch, a canceled multiplayer mode for Grand Theft Auto 3. He also explained that players can earn points by killing each other.

The tweet spoke more about Barking Dog Studios being asked to explore the design of Grand Theft Auto Online in 2001. Although this project was eventually abandoned, Barking Dog Studios would go on to release Bullies as Rockstar Vancouver in 2006, a popular title among fans of Rockstar Games.

It’s interesting that Obbe Vermeij spoke about Grand Theft Auto 3’s canceled multiplayer before the latest GTA documents were leaked.

In that tweet, the former Rockstar technical director mentioned that while working on the planned Grand Theft Auto 3 multiplayer base game, there was “too much to do” and it ended up being scrapped. They later revealed that they tried to work on multiplayer for Grand Theft Auto Vice City, but failed again and settled for a “coop mode” in Grand Theft Auto San Andreas.

The first true online multiplayer experience in the franchise was introduced with 2008’s Grand Theft Auto 4 and then expanded with GTA 5’s online multiplayer. In fact, it continues to receive fresh content to this day, the most recent example of which is the Agent of Sabotage update as of this writing.

See also: GTA Online Weekly Update Continues (December 26, 2024 – January 1, 2025)