By Ray Ampoloquio · Aug 26, 2026 Updated by Hassan Sajid · Aug 26, 2026 Obbe Vermeij recalls Grand Theft Auto III drew little E3 2001 buzz, overshadowed by State of Emergency , Halo , and Metal Gear Solid 2 .

It is hard to picture now, with Grand Theft Auto VI sitting as the most anticipated game on the planet, but there was a moment when almost nobody at the industry's biggest trade show wanted to look at a Grand Theft Auto game let alone expect to play it. Obbe Vermeij , the Rockstar North technical director who spent 1995 to 2009 helping build the series, just posted a reminder of exactly that on X .

The photo shows three Rockstar Games staffers from the New York office at E3 2001, the sprawling Los Angeles expo that served as the must-go event in gaming for the better part of the past three decades. It was taken about five months before Grand Theft Auto III shipped, and by Vermeij's account, the game's success was "far from certain."

It's easy to forget that GTA started with humble beginnings. In the 90s, it was barely a blip on the radar, and while the first game got a sequel, Grand Theft Auto 2 had landed with no more than shrug in 1999. GTA 3 was a gamble on a brand-new idea that Microsoft even once passed up on .

The concept was basically to drag the little-known then two-game series out of its old top-down view, where you watched the action from above like a street map, and into a full 3D city you actually walked and drove through.

This leap would go on to define open-world gaming. However, at the time, it was an unproven and risky bet from a small Scottish studio.

At E3, that bet did not even look like it would pay off. Vermeij says GTA III drew little attention, with the crowd and press far more interested in another Rockstar-published title, the riot simulator State of Emergency . What little attention was left on the show floor went to giants like Halo and Metal Gear Solid 2 .

Some of the people who did try GTA III walked away thinking it was too violent. Jeremy Pope, one of the three New Yorkers in the photo, would later recall the doubt of watching players crowd around State of Emergency at the next kiosk while GTA III sat largely ignored. The developers who actually made the thing were not even in the building.

The North team was back in Scotland, heads down, fixing bugs.

How far the studio behind Grand Theft Auto has grown and evolved between two console-defining launches.

Fast forward twenty-five years and it is the same company living in an inverted universe. Grand Theft Auto V has sold more than 230 million copies, trailing only Minecraft. GTA 6 pre-orders have reportedly blown past Take-Two's projections , an industry-first Netflix showcase will take place on August 27, and the closest thing to a threat is a batch of leaked footage that Vermeij himself waved off as a "nothing burger" .

Take-Two Interactive is not the underdog anymore. It is the house whose goal is to go beyond the gaming industry .

Yet, all these years later, some things haven't changed. The same studio is reportedly finishing GTA 6 with staff pulled back into the office five days a week and its reveal partly hijacked by the leaks . The spotlight swung from ignoring Rockstar to obsessing over it , but the grind looks just about the same.

As for the three men in the photo, none of them are still at Rockstar, and none had a hand in GTA 6 .

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