An ex-Rockstar North employee has removed several blogs detailing the development of games such as Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City, and the cancelled spy game Agent after the studio itself submitted a written complaint via email (thanks, Time Extension).
In a series of posts dubbed 'Inside Rockstar North', Obbe Vermeij, who previously worked at the studio as a technical director, extensively detailed his experience working on several projects during his tenure from 1995 to 2009. It seems, however, that Rockstar North has taken issue with the level of detail included, with Vermeij stating that it could potentially ruin the "Rockstar mystique".
Here's what he had to say on the matter in a recent post:
"Today (22 Nov 2023) I got an email from R*North. Apparently some of the OG's there are upset by my blog. I genuinely didn't think anyone would mind me talking about 20 year old games but I was wrong. Something about ruining the Rockstar mystique or something.
"Anyway, this blog isn't important enough to me to p*** off my former colleagues in Edinburgh so I'm winding it down. I'll maybe just leave a few articles with anecdotes that don't affect anyone but me.
"I would love for Rockstar to open up about development of the trilogy themselves, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen anytime soon.
"Maybe I'll try again in a decade or two."
It shouldn't really come as a huge surprise given Rockstar's ironclad policies around keeping its projects and inner workings secret, but it's a shame that the studio isn't willing to allow some insight into projects that are now decades old.
GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas are now playable on the Switch via Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition. We weren't too hot on the release when it launched back in 2021, however, calling it "a poor port, a shoddy, stuttery, low-resolution mess full of bugs, glitches, audio problems and more besides", ultimately awarding it a score of 4/10.
We revisited the compilation earlier this year and stated that the games are "better than they were, but still not great".