20 years ago, the cult game GTA San Andreas was released, and Aube Vermeij, former CTO of Rockstar Games, shared his memories of how calmly the developers treated this landmark event.
«Back then, game releases were different, — writes He is on X (Twitter). — It took six weeks to produce, package, and distribute the DVDs. The patches had not yet been distributed online. For us, all the stress came at the time of project delivery, six weeks before the release. No major problems arose».
Since the developers didn’t have to work on the patch on day one, because it was unheard of at the time, Vermeij notes:
«Most of the developers are on vacation, and we’re already thinking about our next project».
He adds that digital distribution didn’t exist yet. Games were usually released on Tuesdays or Wednesdays in the US and Fridays in the UK. The internet was weak, and aside from a few trailers, gamers didn’t know much about the game. For big titles, stores opened at midnight the night before release day to allow pre-orders to be picked up. Vermeij admits that he only found out later that the publisher has to pay stores to make these late openings happen.
The developer says that he came to the night release of San Andreas at the largest store near the Rockstar North office in Edinburgh — «it was HMV on Princess Street». The queue of customers stretched across the store and spilled into the street. «It was amazing to see all these people, so excited, going home to play all night», — Vermeij recalls.
Source: Gamesradar