Rockstar Has Been Perfecting GTA Online For 20 Years
GTA Online offers a world that millions of players still can’t give up today. However, the foundations of this massive online chaos emerged as an idea that Rockstar had been dreaming of since the first GTA games but had to postpone due to technical difficulties. The 20-year evolution that GTA Online has undergone until it has become today is very intriguing for players.
The Foundations of the GTA Online Idea Were Laid in the 90s
According to the statements of Obbe Vermeij, one of Rockstar’s former developers, the idea of adding an online multiplayer structure to the GTA universe was on the table with the first GTA games. In GTA 1 and 2, attempts were made to provide a multiplayer experience over LAN, but these attempts were not fully successful due to synchronization problems. At that time, all of the game’s data had to be perfectly synchronized, which was a serious obstacle for the computers of the time.
During the GTA 3 era, the team started working on a simple deathmatch mode prototype. Players could kill each other in the city, drag each other out of vehicles, and respawn at any point they wanted. However, this system required lobby infrastructure and network scenarios to work properly. This plan was shelved once again due to time constraints.
In Vice City, some preparations were made for an online mode. Rockstar even hired new network programmers for this. However, the busy schedule did not make it possible to continue the project. In the San Andreas era, online plans were completely abandoned and a limited local co-op mode was added instead. However, this option was not enough to provide the multiplayer experience players expected.
After all this accumulation and experience, GTA 4 was the game where Rockstar took the most concrete step in terms of online mode. Thanks to full-time programmers and designers, the GTA universe finally gained a modern multiplayer structure. However, the real explosion happened thanks to GTA Online, which came with GTA 5. This time, Rockstar has managed to bring the online GTA chaos it dreamed of to millions by offering unlimited content and an ever-expanding world.
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