How Sony Secured GTA as a PS2 Exclusive - IGN

The PlayStation 2 is the best-selling console of all time for well-documented reasons: its massive library, its headstart on the Xbox, its mid-life price cut, and its affordability as a DVD player. But the deal that brought a trio of Grand Theft Auto games – GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas – to the PS2 before any other platform was vital to it's success. They collectively make up three of its top six sellers. Some people bought the PS2 just to play GTA and if you didn't have one, you were nagging a friend who did. We've heard snippets about this deal and about that key meeting at the Sunset Marquis before. But IGN has now spoken to four people at the centre of it all who can tell the story in more detail than ever. They reveal previously unknown twists and turns in negotiations: how Sony nearly missed out on exclusivity in the US, how Take Two got cash and a discount on production costs from Sony, and how Microsoft could've derailed the whole thing. This is how Sony secured GTA as a PS2 exclusive.