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A Piece of Gaming & World History


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lazloisdavrock

   In 2001, I was a young kid working at a EB Games in Maryland for pot money. A 3D Grand Theft Auto game was releasing in just a few short weeks at the time, and the gaming community had no idea what was in store for them.  Unfortunately, the same could be said about the world on a different matter.
 

   September 11th 2001 came and went. A little over a week after, our store received a stack of promotional “Out Now” prints for the game. They were meant to be placed around the store and the windows for the games impending release.  Later that same day my manager informed us the game had been delayed and the prints were to be disposed of. We were never given an explanation at the time from the vendor. 
 

   Surely an “Out Now” poster could just be reused at a later time, right?  I was never really good at following orders back then but I do remember throwing them all in the garbage. Except one.  


   While I unpack my belongings as I move into my new home, I figured I’d share this little piece of history. The very same print. Framed. 
 

IMG_6102.thumb.jpeg.2c34e65840e348dc3c5f9069134afcbe.jpeg

The NTSC boxart that could have been. 

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lazloisdavrock
20 minutes ago, Legomanarthur said:

That's a pretty cool piece of history!

 

I'm not a GTA collector but I wonder if promotional posters like these are valuable nowadays.


I’m not sure but I imagine this one would be a little more valuable, given its true reasoning for removal in the US. 

  • 2 months later...
  • 1 month later...

The poster I used to have, the top line says 'Rockstar presents, a DMA game' and it has a DMA Design logo centre bottom below the artwork, and I know another one existed which was black with the DMA logo top right on newer artwork more akin to the final NTSC box art.

 

The legal change to Rockstar North happened on 27th March 2002 and the logo was adopted from May 21st 2002, with their website changing around June, and the DMA site being taken offline, before redirecting to Rockstar Studios website (and then finally Rockstar North's website by the December of 2002).

 

The very early PS2 releases of GTA 3 had the DMA splash screen intact, and the PAL box art certainly still had the DMA logos front and back, and the official website had the DMA logo on it as late as February 2002.

 

So for that reason, I'm not sure this is valuable as you think - perhaps you were mistaken on timeline?

cant remember
10 hours ago, MikeWh said:

The poster I used to have, the top line says 'Rockstar presents, a DMA game' and it has a DMA Design logo centre bottom below the artwork, and I know another one existed which was black with the DMA logo top right on newer artwork more akin to the final NTSC box art.

 

The legal change to Rockstar North happened on 27th March 2002 and the logo was adopted from May 21st 2002, with their website changing around June, and the DMA site being taken offline, before redirecting to Rockstar Studios website (and then finally Rockstar North's website by the December of 2002).

 

The very early PS2 releases of GTA 3 had the DMA splash screen intact, and the PAL box art certainly still had the DMA logos front and back, and the official website had the DMA logo on it as late as February 2002.

 

So for that reason, I'm not sure this is valuable as you think - perhaps you were mistaken on timeline?

Hm good spotting. R* North was indeed still DMA design when GTA3 released on PS2, this poster already has the blue R* North logo instead of DMA design.

Perhaps it's for the PC version?

10 hours ago, cant remember said:

Hm good spotting. R* North was indeed still DMA design when GTA3 released on PS2, this poster already has the blue R* North logo instead of DMA design.

Perhaps it's for the PC version?

Maybe, but it curiously has a PS logo bottom left - unless the assets were redone for the PC release with the newer branding on it? I just don't think this pre-dates the actual launch, the Point of Sale (POS) marketing became available to retailers in September 2001 according to the May 2001 marketing plan, so it's probable that OP's story checks out, but equally I'm not sure this poster is from that time period - the same May '01 marketing guide shows the original launch 'out now' poster said 'Available Now'.

 

Between October 2001 and February 2002, Rockstar North was actually to be called Rockstar Studios North or Rockstar Studios UK, the logo itself was the Rockstar logo we know now, with a tartan background:

 

Screenshot2025-01-27034355.png.c7cb5421fbf5bcc033cd4b70411aee4a.png

 

Screenshot2025-01-27034848.png.63fa3dd670d079f7759ef832781284a4.png

 

So I think this may well have been PC marketing material, which had the blue Rockstar North logo as well as the yellow Rockstar masterbrand logo on it.

 

 

Edited by MikeWh
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