WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.270 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today, I want 00:00:02.270 --> 00:00:04.169 you to close your eyes for a second. Imagine 00:00:04.169 --> 00:00:06.710 the humidity hitting you like a wall. Oh, yeah. 00:00:07.049 --> 00:00:09.669 Imagine the smell of sea salt mixed with, I don't 00:00:09.669 --> 00:00:12.070 know, expensive cologne and gasoline. A very 00:00:12.070 --> 00:00:14.570 specific combination. And imagine a skyline that 00:00:14.570 --> 00:00:16.989 isn't just lit up, but is absolutely drenched 00:00:16.989 --> 00:00:20.510 in neon pink and cyan. We are setting the time 00:00:20.510 --> 00:00:23.750 circuits for 1986. But it's a very specific 1986, 00:00:23.890 --> 00:00:26.250 isn't it? I mean, it's not the 1986 of Ronald 00:00:26.250 --> 00:00:28.550 Reagan speeches or the Challenger disaster news 00:00:28.550 --> 00:00:31.449 reports. It's the 1986 of popcorn. culture's 00:00:31.449 --> 00:00:34.509 fever dream. Exactly. We are talking about a 00:00:34.509 --> 00:00:37.929 world of pastel suits, excess, and a whole lot 00:00:37.929 --> 00:00:40.250 of trouble. We are talking about Grand Theft 00:00:40.250 --> 00:00:43.909 Auto by Citi. It hit shelves in October 2002, 00:00:44.229 --> 00:00:47.210 dropped by the team at Rockstar North. And looking 00:00:47.210 --> 00:00:49.310 back at it now, I don't think it's an exaggeration 00:00:49.310 --> 00:00:51.530 to say it changed the texture of gaming. It wasn't 00:00:51.530 --> 00:00:53.170 just a sequel. It felt like a cultural pivot 00:00:53.170 --> 00:00:55.250 point. It certainly solidified the franchise 00:00:55.250 --> 00:00:58.810 as a juggernaut. But more than that, it really 00:00:58.810 --> 00:01:02.729 bridged the gap between video game and Hollywood 00:01:02.729 --> 00:01:05.129 blockbuster. We are looking at a massive stack 00:01:05.129 --> 00:01:07.890 of sources today. Production notes, sales data, 00:01:08.150 --> 00:01:11.170 reception history, and some incredibly dense 00:01:11.170 --> 00:01:13.650 legal records regarding the lawsuits that plagued 00:01:13.650 --> 00:01:15.209 the game. And the mission for this deep dive 00:01:15.209 --> 00:01:17.590 is pretty clear. We want to figure out how a 00:01:17.590 --> 00:01:20.129 game that was initially pitched as just a mission 00:01:20.129 --> 00:01:23.930 pack for GTA 3, basically a glorified expansion, 00:01:24.329 --> 00:01:27.230 morphed into the best -selling game of 2002. 00:01:27.670 --> 00:01:30.450 And not just best -selling. It holds a 95 on 00:01:30.450 --> 00:01:33.420 Metacritic, which is just... Rare air. It is. 00:01:33.500 --> 00:01:36.379 But it also became this lightning rod for controversy. 00:01:36.819 --> 00:01:38.700 That is the tension at the heart of this deep 00:01:38.700 --> 00:01:41.280 dive. On one hand, you have a critical darling 00:01:41.280 --> 00:01:44.079 that defined the open world genre. Right. On 00:01:44.079 --> 00:01:46.340 the other hand, you have a product that sparked 00:01:46.340 --> 00:01:49.200 protests in the streets of New York City and 00:01:49.200 --> 00:01:51.739 found itself at the center of multiple multi 00:01:51.739 --> 00:01:53.799 -million dollar lawsuits that went all the way 00:01:53.799 --> 00:01:56.260 to the constitutional level. So grab your Hawaiian 00:01:56.260 --> 00:01:58.760 shirt, maybe roll up the sleeves of your blazer 00:01:58.760 --> 00:02:00.939 if you're feeling bold, and let's unpack this. 00:02:01.060 --> 00:02:02.980 Let's dive in. I want to start with the vibe. 00:02:03.379 --> 00:02:05.340 Because if you played this game, the first thing 00:02:05.340 --> 00:02:07.060 that hits you isn't the gameplay mechanics or 00:02:07.060 --> 00:02:09.599 the shooting, it's the atmosphere. You turn it 00:02:09.599 --> 00:02:12.120 on and you are immediately transported to Vice 00:02:12.120 --> 00:02:14.599 City. which is, for all intents and purposes, 00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:17.860 Miami. Heavily fictionalized, sure, but Rockstar 00:02:17.860 --> 00:02:20.819 explicitly based it on Miami, but they chose 00:02:20.819 --> 00:02:25.620 a very specific snapshot in time, 1986. Sam Houser, 00:02:25.759 --> 00:02:27.979 the executive producer and really the mastermind 00:02:27.979 --> 00:02:30.439 behind the tone of these games, called it the 00:02:30.439 --> 00:02:33.740 grooviest era of crime. That quote is fascinating 00:02:33.740 --> 00:02:36.560 because he followed it up by saying it didn't 00:02:36.560 --> 00:02:38.800 even feel like crime. It was a topsy -turvy, 00:02:38.819 --> 00:02:41.389 back -to -front period of time. And I think that 00:02:41.389 --> 00:02:43.310 is crucial to understanding the tone of Vice 00:02:43.310 --> 00:02:46.069 City. How so? Well, you have to contrast it with 00:02:46.069 --> 00:02:49.590 what came before. GTA 3 was set in Liberty City, 00:02:49.750 --> 00:02:52.569 a stand -in for New York. It was gritty, gray, 00:02:52.849 --> 00:02:55.550 industrial, and very modern. It felt like a crime 00:02:55.550 --> 00:02:58.289 documentary. Right. GTA 3 was cold. Vice City 00:02:58.289 --> 00:03:00.729 was hot. Precisely. Vice City was a period piece. 00:03:00.909 --> 00:03:02.710 It was satirical. They weren't just recreating 00:03:02.710 --> 00:03:05.389 Miami. They were recreating the idea of Miami 00:03:05.389 --> 00:03:08.129 from the mid-'80s. The pop culture version of 00:03:08.129 --> 00:03:11.900 Miami. Exactly. Leslie Benzies, the producer, 00:03:12.080 --> 00:03:15.580 described it as a party town sun, sea, and sex, 00:03:15.780 --> 00:03:18.219 but with a dark edge underneath. And you can 00:03:18.219 --> 00:03:19.680 see where they got their inspiration. I mean, 00:03:19.699 --> 00:03:22.020 if you watch five minutes of the movie Scarface 00:03:22.020 --> 00:03:24.939 or an episode of the TV show Miami Vice, you're 00:03:24.939 --> 00:03:26.919 basically seeing the mood board for this game. 00:03:27.120 --> 00:03:30.039 The influence of Miami Vice, the TV series that 00:03:30.039 --> 00:03:33.180 ran from 84 to 89, cannot be overstated here. 00:03:33.379 --> 00:03:36.340 In fact, Aaron Garbutt, the art director, explicitly 00:03:36.340 --> 00:03:38.919 used the show as a reference point for the lighting. 00:03:39.080 --> 00:03:42.719 The neon. That glow is everything. It is. But 00:03:42.719 --> 00:03:45.120 this wasn't just about saying make it pink. It 00:03:45.120 --> 00:03:47.300 was a massive technical hurdle. Really? I mean, 00:03:47.340 --> 00:03:50.300 neon is just a color, right? Not in 3D rendering, 00:03:50.439 --> 00:03:52.419 it isn't. Not back then. You have to remember 00:03:52.419 --> 00:03:53.939 the hardware they were working on, the PlayStation 00:03:53.939 --> 00:03:57.379 2. Oh, right. It had 32 megabytes of RAM. That 00:03:57.379 --> 00:03:59.840 is microscopic by today's standards. Your smart 00:03:59.840 --> 00:04:01.599 fridge probably has more memory. They had to 00:04:01.599 --> 00:04:04.340 figure out how to make that specific neon glow. 00:04:04.800 --> 00:04:07.479 The trails of light that define the 80s aesthetic 00:04:07.479 --> 00:04:10.500 look right on that hardware without tanking the 00:04:10.500 --> 00:04:13.280 frame rate. So the haze and the blur we remember 00:04:13.280 --> 00:04:16.300 from the game, that wasn't just an artistic choice. 00:04:16.660 --> 00:04:19.220 It was a brilliant marriage of art and necessity. 00:04:19.800 --> 00:04:23.160 The trails effect gave it that drug hazy heat 00:04:23.160 --> 00:04:27.560 wave look of Miami Vice. But it also helped mask 00:04:27.560 --> 00:04:30.279 the fact that the draw distance wasn't perfect 00:04:30.279 --> 00:04:33.000 and the textures were pretty low resolution. 00:04:33.339 --> 00:04:36.740 So they used the aesthetic to hide the technical 00:04:36.740 --> 00:04:39.399 limitations. That's clever. Very clever. And 00:04:39.399 --> 00:04:41.579 speaking of doing the homework, I love this detail 00:04:41.579 --> 00:04:44.240 from the development notes. The team didn't just 00:04:44.240 --> 00:04:47.120 watch TV. They actually went to Miami. They did. 00:04:47.579 --> 00:04:50.459 Just after they finished GTA 3, which was a grueling 00:04:50.459 --> 00:04:52.639 crunch, by the way, they split into small groups 00:04:52.639 --> 00:04:54.759 and did field research. They walked the streets, 00:04:54.860 --> 00:04:57.160 took photographs, and observed the architecture, 00:04:57.459 --> 00:04:59.259 the people. They wanted to get the feel of the 00:04:59.259 --> 00:05:00.860 place. They wanted it to feel like a living, 00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:03.240 breathing city. I imagine that research trip 00:05:03.240 --> 00:05:05.220 involved at least a few cocktails at sunset, 00:05:05.439 --> 00:05:07.860 purely for scientific purposes, of course. One 00:05:07.860 --> 00:05:10.420 would assume. But that on -the -ground research 00:05:10.420 --> 00:05:13.759 is why the city layout feels so distinct. Unlike 00:05:13.759 --> 00:05:16.980 Liberty City, which was a dense urban grid, Vice 00:05:16.980 --> 00:05:20.420 City is spread out. It's two main islands, massive 00:05:20.420 --> 00:05:23.199 beaches, distinct neighborhoods like Little Havana 00:05:23.199 --> 00:05:25.879 and Little Haiti. It has a geography that makes 00:05:25.879 --> 00:05:27.660 sense if you know Miami, but it's compressed 00:05:27.660 --> 00:05:30.060 for gameplay. Okay, we absolutely cannot talk 00:05:30.060 --> 00:05:31.860 about the atmosphere without talking about the 00:05:31.860 --> 00:05:34.660 sound. For me, and I think for... millions of 00:05:34.660 --> 00:05:37.199 players, the radio stations were the game. Oh, 00:05:37.240 --> 00:05:39.220 for sure. I can still hear the opening notes 00:05:39.220 --> 00:05:41.639 of Video Killed the Radio Star when I think about 00:05:41.639 --> 00:05:43.959 driving that Faggio scooter. It was a quantum 00:05:43.959 --> 00:05:47.199 leap from the previous game. GTA 3 had great 00:05:47.199 --> 00:05:49.660 music, mostly created in -house or from smaller 00:05:49.660 --> 00:05:52.980 labels. But for Vice City, Rockstar flexed their 00:05:52.980 --> 00:05:55.800 newfound muscle. They licensed over 113 songs 00:05:55.800 --> 00:05:58.360 from the era. We are talking about nine hours 00:05:58.360 --> 00:06:00.439 of music. And it wasn't obscure stuff. It was 00:06:00.439 --> 00:06:03.139 the heavy hitters, Michael Jackson, Toto, Judas 00:06:03.139 --> 00:06:04.980 Priest, Hall & Oates. It was like a greatest 00:06:04.980 --> 00:06:07.779 hits of the 80s. Exactly. And the industry took 00:06:07.779 --> 00:06:10.220 notice. This wasn't just a licensing deal. It 00:06:10.220 --> 00:06:12.959 was a partnership. Epic Records actually published 00:06:12.959 --> 00:06:15.870 the official soundtrack box set. So a record 00:06:15.870 --> 00:06:18.490 label was selling a video game soundtrack. Right. 00:06:18.550 --> 00:06:20.850 That really signals a shift in how the entertainment 00:06:20.850 --> 00:06:23.889 industry viewed games. It wasn't just software 00:06:23.889 --> 00:06:26.850 anymore. It was a valid vehicle for music distribution. 00:06:27.089 --> 00:06:30.290 It was culture. But beyond the music, the talk 00:06:30.290 --> 00:06:33.649 radio aspect was expanded significantly. It was 00:06:33.649 --> 00:06:36.250 about three times as much talk content as GTA 00:06:36.250 --> 00:06:40.790 3. Laszlo Jones, who produced it, and voiced 00:06:40.790 --> 00:06:43.360 the host on the rock station, V -Rock. A legend. 00:06:43.620 --> 00:06:46.439 A legend. He brought in this very specific satirical 00:06:46.439 --> 00:06:48.959 style. They had callers who were conspiracy theorists, 00:06:49.120 --> 00:06:52.300 yuppies obsessed with self -help, frantic parents, 00:06:52.540 --> 00:06:54.860 just, you know, the absolute dregs of society 00:06:54.860 --> 00:06:57.279 calling into these shows. It reinforced the satire, 00:06:57.279 --> 00:06:59.399 didn't it? It gave the world this layer of dark 00:06:59.399 --> 00:07:01.600 comedy. It did. It told you that the world you 00:07:01.600 --> 00:07:03.420 were driving through was populated by eccentric, 00:07:03.800 --> 00:07:06.660 borderline unhinged characters. It deepened the 00:07:06.660 --> 00:07:08.459 immersion. You weren't just driving. You were 00:07:08.459 --> 00:07:10.939 listening to the pulse of the city's id. You'd 00:07:10.939 --> 00:07:12.680 find yourself just parking the car to hear the 00:07:12.680 --> 00:07:14.980 end of a segment before starting a mission. All 00:07:14.980 --> 00:07:17.439 the time. But which brings us to the person doing 00:07:17.439 --> 00:07:19.920 the driving. We have to talk about the protagonist 00:07:19.920 --> 00:07:22.259 because this was a massive design shift for the 00:07:22.259 --> 00:07:26.199 series. Huge. In GTA 3, you played as Claude. 00:07:26.540 --> 00:07:29.160 Claude was silent. He didn't speak a single word. 00:07:29.360 --> 00:07:31.639 If a boss told him to jump off a bridge, he just 00:07:31.639 --> 00:07:33.959 nodded and went to the bridge. Which was kind 00:07:33.959 --> 00:07:36.779 of the standard back then, the silent protagonist. 00:07:36.839 --> 00:07:39.180 The idea was that you projected yourself onto 00:07:39.180 --> 00:07:42.600 the character. Exactly. But Rockstar realized 00:07:42.600 --> 00:07:45.259 that if they wanted to tell a cinematic story, 00:07:45.439 --> 00:07:48.319 something that rivaled Goodfellas or Scarface, 00:07:48.540 --> 00:07:51.920 they needed a character with agency. They needed 00:07:51.920 --> 00:07:55.350 a voice. Enter Tommy Forseti. And they didn't 00:07:55.350 --> 00:07:58.370 just hire a voice actor. They hired Ray Liotta. 00:07:58.470 --> 00:08:00.389 A Hollywood heavyweight. I mean, the guy from 00:08:00.389 --> 00:08:02.870 Goodfellas. Casting Ray Liotta was a statement 00:08:02.870 --> 00:08:05.290 of intent. It signaled that Rockstar wanted cinematic 00:08:05.290 --> 00:08:08.009 legitimacy. They were saying, we are playing 00:08:08.009 --> 00:08:10.730 in the same sandbox as Martin Scorsese now. But 00:08:10.730 --> 00:08:12.889 reading through the production notes, it sounds 00:08:12.889 --> 00:08:15.370 like that collision of worlds wasn't exactly 00:08:15.370 --> 00:08:18.339 smooth. No, it wasn't. There was a lot of friction. 00:08:18.480 --> 00:08:21.819 You have to remember, in 2002, acting in a video 00:08:21.819 --> 00:08:24.519 game was seen as a step down for a movie star. 00:08:24.699 --> 00:08:27.680 It wasn't prestigious yet. So Liotta maybe had 00:08:27.680 --> 00:08:29.879 a bit of an attitude about it. According to Sam 00:08:29.879 --> 00:08:32.679 Houser, in some recording sessions, Liotta was 00:08:32.679 --> 00:08:36.019 really into it. But in others, he was very dark 00:08:36.019 --> 00:08:39.620 and couldn't work. Director Navid Kansari also 00:08:39.620 --> 00:08:41.580 noted he was occasionally difficult to work with. 00:08:41.820 --> 00:08:44.940 I read somewhere that... Leotta insisted on seeing 00:08:44.940 --> 00:08:47.039 the scenes he was acting in, but, I mean, the 00:08:47.039 --> 00:08:49.159 game wasn't built yet. Right. How do you show 00:08:49.159 --> 00:08:51.840 him a scene that only exists as code? They actually 00:08:51.840 --> 00:08:54.399 had to record him against a blue screen so the 00:08:54.399 --> 00:08:56.559 animators could visualize the cutscenes later. 00:08:56.759 --> 00:08:59.320 It was a clash of methodologies. I can see that. 00:08:59.460 --> 00:09:01.460 You have a method actor used to reacting to other 00:09:01.460 --> 00:09:03.879 humans on a set, and you're putting him in a 00:09:03.879 --> 00:09:06.220 sound booth asking him to shout at a microphone. 00:09:07.500 --> 00:09:09.679 It's a completely different discipline. But despite 00:09:09.679 --> 00:09:12.500 the difficulty, the result was undeniable. Oh, 00:09:12.500 --> 00:09:14.639 absolutely. Critics said Liotta's performance 00:09:14.639 --> 00:09:17.759 sweated charisma. It gave the story a center 00:09:17.759 --> 00:09:21.279 of gravity that GTA 3 just didn't have. It grounded 00:09:21.279 --> 00:09:23.700 the narrative. Tommy Vercetti wasn't just an 00:09:23.700 --> 00:09:26.220 errand boy. He was dangerous. He was volatile. 00:09:26.340 --> 00:09:28.360 You could hear it in his voice. And the story 00:09:28.360 --> 00:09:30.740 he is acting in is straight -up gangster cinema. 00:09:31.779 --> 00:09:35.740 Let's break down the setup. It's 1986. Tommy 00:09:35.740 --> 00:09:38.279 gets out of prison in Liberty City after 15 years. 00:09:38.480 --> 00:09:41.159 He kept his mouth shut. For the Farrelly crime 00:09:41.159 --> 00:09:44.259 family. A loyal soldier. Right. And his boss, 00:09:44.539 --> 00:09:46.879 Sonny Farrelly, voiced by Tom Sizemore, another 00:09:46.879 --> 00:09:49.960 big name, sends him down to Vice City, ostensibly 00:09:49.960 --> 00:09:52.519 to expand operations into the drug trade. But 00:09:52.519 --> 00:09:54.340 really, Sonny just wants him out of the way. 00:09:54.419 --> 00:09:57.100 He's a liability, a ghost from the past. And 00:09:57.100 --> 00:09:59.559 then the classic inciting incident, the drug 00:09:59.559 --> 00:10:02.169 deal gone wrong. The ambush. Tommy loses the 00:10:02.169 --> 00:10:04.350 money and the merchandise. Sunny is furious. 00:10:04.649 --> 00:10:06.269 Yeah. And usually in a video game up to this 00:10:06.269 --> 00:10:08.529 point, the plot structure would be simple. Go 00:10:08.529 --> 00:10:10.870 get the money back for the boss. Mission after 00:10:10.870 --> 00:10:12.990 mission until you succeed. But that's not really 00:10:12.990 --> 00:10:15.070 what happens, is it? I mean, it starts that way, 00:10:15.070 --> 00:10:17.529 but then it pivots. Exactly. And this is the 00:10:17.529 --> 00:10:19.929 narrative brilliance of Vice City. The arc isn't 00:10:19.929 --> 00:10:22.870 about restoration. It's about usurpation. Tommy 00:10:22.870 --> 00:10:25.889 realizes he doesn't need the boss. He stops working 00:10:25.889 --> 00:10:28.029 for people and starts working for himself. Yeah. 00:10:28.090 --> 00:10:31.539 It's the shift from henchman to kingpin. He builds 00:10:31.539 --> 00:10:34.620 this crew of misfits around him. You've got Ken 00:10:34.620 --> 00:10:37.580 Rosenberg, the neurotic, cocaine -addled lawyer. 00:10:37.840 --> 00:10:40.360 Who is basically Sean Penn's character from Carlito's 00:10:40.360 --> 00:10:43.000 Way and a wonderful performance by Bill Fickner. 00:10:43.019 --> 00:10:45.480 Absolutely. And you've got Lance Vance, the smooth 00:10:45.480 --> 00:10:47.620 talker in the white suit who lost his brother 00:10:47.620 --> 00:10:50.000 in that ambush at the beginning. That relationship 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:52.940 with Lance Vance is key. It was intended to mimic 00:10:52.940 --> 00:10:55.879 the Crockett and Tubbs dynamic from Miami Vice 00:10:55.879 --> 00:10:58.080 Partners Against the World. They have that initial 00:10:58.080 --> 00:11:00.399 bond. But because this is a tragedy, or at least 00:11:00.399 --> 00:11:02.940 a crime drama, it ends in betrayal. Of course 00:11:02.940 --> 00:11:04.860 it does. Lance selling Tommy out to Sonny is 00:11:04.860 --> 00:11:07.259 one of the big emotional beats of the game. It 00:11:07.259 --> 00:11:09.500 hurts because you spent so much time with him 00:11:09.500 --> 00:11:11.659 as your partner. Spoiler alert for a 20 -year 00:11:11.659 --> 00:11:13.980 -old game, but yeah, Tommy ends up taking everyone 00:11:13.980 --> 00:11:16.679 out. Sonny, Lance, the whole lot. The final mission 00:11:16.679 --> 00:11:19.840 is this huge shootout in his mansion. Very Scarface. 00:11:20.100 --> 00:11:23.799 Very Scarface. By the end, he's the undisputed 00:11:23.799 --> 00:11:26.240 ruler of the city, he's standing over the bodies 00:11:26.240 --> 00:11:28.700 of his enemies, and he's finally on top. And 00:11:28.700 --> 00:11:31.259 that narrative arc rising to become the ruler 00:11:31.259 --> 00:11:33.860 is perfectly mirrored in the gameplay mechanics. 00:11:34.200 --> 00:11:36.080 This is where the game design really supported 00:11:36.080 --> 00:11:39.220 the story in a way that was pretty new at the 00:11:39.220 --> 00:11:41.879 time. It's one of the best examples of ludonarrative 00:11:41.879 --> 00:11:44.379 harmony. Before that term was even really a thing. 00:11:44.519 --> 00:11:47.139 So let's talk gameplay, because they added some 00:11:47.139 --> 00:11:49.820 things that seem basic now but were huge then. 00:11:49.980 --> 00:11:52.539 First off... Motorcycles. It sounds trivial, 00:11:52.679 --> 00:11:55.340 doesn't it? They added bikes. But from a physics 00:11:55.340 --> 00:11:58.299 engine perspective, that was a nightmare. GTA 00:11:58.299 --> 00:12:00.539 3 didn't have them because four wheels are stable. 00:12:00.879 --> 00:12:03.320 Two wheels require a completely different balance 00:12:03.320 --> 00:12:05.519 calculation. But it changed the flow of the game 00:12:05.519 --> 00:12:07.820 entirely. You could weave through traffic, pop 00:12:07.820 --> 00:12:10.519 wheelies, bail out at high speed. It made the 00:12:10.519 --> 00:12:13.100 city feel faster, more agile. It opened up new 00:12:13.100 --> 00:12:15.639 pathways. You could cut through alleys and over 00:12:15.639 --> 00:12:18.259 ramps that a car just couldn't handle. And the 00:12:18.259 --> 00:12:20.440 combat got a facelift, too. Better targeting, 00:12:20.519 --> 00:12:23.299 right. Improved targeting, new weapons like the 00:12:23.299 --> 00:12:26.539 Colt Python and the minigun. And they added the 00:12:26.539 --> 00:12:28.899 ability to do drive -by shooting sideways. Which 00:12:28.899 --> 00:12:31.100 was essential if you were being chased by the 00:12:31.100 --> 00:12:34.519 cops. The biggest change, the thing that really 00:12:34.519 --> 00:12:36.720 tied into that kingpin theme we talked about, 00:12:36.820 --> 00:12:39.899 was the property system. Yes. This is the asset 00:12:39.899 --> 00:12:42.220 acquisition mechanic. In previous games, the 00:12:42.220 --> 00:12:44.820 loop was go to a phone booth, get a mission, 00:12:44.980 --> 00:12:48.679 do it, get cash. The cash was mostly for buying 00:12:48.679 --> 00:12:51.240 weapons or painting your car. It was resource 00:12:51.240 --> 00:12:54.539 management. Means to an end? Right. In Vice City, 00:12:54.679 --> 00:12:57.080 you use that cash to buy the city itself. You 00:12:57.080 --> 00:12:58.940 could buy the Malibu Club. You could buy a taxi 00:12:58.940 --> 00:13:01.340 company. You could buy an ice cream factory that 00:13:01.340 --> 00:13:04.600 was not selling ice cream. A pornographic film 00:13:04.600 --> 00:13:07.039 studio, to be precise. Oh, I got to keep it gritty. 00:13:07.340 --> 00:13:09.500 But the mechanic was brilliant. You buy the business, 00:13:09.620 --> 00:13:12.440 and then it unlocks specific missions for that 00:13:12.440 --> 00:13:14.580 business. You eliminate the competition, steal 00:13:14.580 --> 00:13:16.879 equipment, secure the assets. And once you do 00:13:16.879 --> 00:13:19.139 all that? The property starts generating passive 00:13:19.139 --> 00:13:21.580 income. You literally have to drive by and collect 00:13:21.580 --> 00:13:23.419 your earnings from a little floating dollar sign. 00:13:23.759 --> 00:13:26.240 It's the empire building loop. You aren't just 00:13:26.240 --> 00:13:28.940 a criminal committing random acts of violence. 00:13:29.120 --> 00:13:31.960 You're a CEO. You're building a portfolio. Exactly. 00:13:32.080 --> 00:13:34.600 It grounded the player in the world. You weren't 00:13:34.600 --> 00:13:36.720 just passing through. You owned pieces of it. 00:13:36.759 --> 00:13:39.279 It gave you a reason to protect the city. It 00:13:39.279 --> 00:13:41.320 aligned the player's motivation, which is getting 00:13:41.320 --> 00:13:44.039 rich, with the character's motivation, which 00:13:44.039 --> 00:13:46.620 is ruling the town. Now, making all this happen, 00:13:46.740 --> 00:13:49.200 the technical side, we touched on the lighting, 00:13:49.320 --> 00:13:51.850 but... Rendering this whole world was a heavy 00:13:51.850 --> 00:13:54.750 lift. It was. They used the renderware engine. 00:13:54.929 --> 00:13:56.710 Now, for the listeners who aren't tech savvy, 00:13:56.950 --> 00:13:59.389 renderware was a middleware engine used by a 00:13:59.389 --> 00:14:01.309 lot of games back then. It was great at rendering 00:14:01.309 --> 00:14:03.649 blocks, which is why it worked so well for Liberty 00:14:03.649 --> 00:14:05.970 City, which is basically New York. The big grid. 00:14:06.149 --> 00:14:10.110 A big grid. But Miami is curves. It's Art Deco. 00:14:10.230 --> 00:14:12.909 It's palm trees. It's not a blocky city. So the 00:14:12.909 --> 00:14:15.309 engine itself was fighting against the art style? 00:14:15.629 --> 00:14:17.970 In a way, yes. They had to really push it. They 00:14:17.970 --> 00:14:21.429 had 110 unique pedestrian models using skins 00:14:21.429 --> 00:14:24.029 to make them look realistic, plus about 50 story 00:14:24.029 --> 00:14:26.830 characters. They mixed motion capture with stop 00:14:26.830 --> 00:14:29.690 motion animation. Wait, stop motion? Like Wallace 00:14:29.690 --> 00:14:33.110 and Gromit? Sort of. Not clay, obviously. But 00:14:33.110 --> 00:14:37.169 stop motion, in this context, refers to hand 00:14:37.169 --> 00:14:40.289 -keyed animation frames versus interpolated motion 00:14:40.289 --> 00:14:43.269 capture. It's a more deliberate frame -by -frame 00:14:43.269 --> 00:14:45.730 process. And what's the effect of that? It gave 00:14:45.730 --> 00:14:48.870 the characters a specific arcade snap. It's why 00:14:48.870 --> 00:14:51.009 the movement in Vice City feels sharp and immediate, 00:14:51.210 --> 00:14:53.330 rather than the slightly sluggish, realistic 00:14:53.330 --> 00:14:56.350 ragdoll physics we have in modern games. It feels 00:14:56.350 --> 00:14:58.929 responsive. But they pushed the hardware to the 00:14:58.929 --> 00:15:01.870 absolute limit. Oh, they broke the limit. Reviews 00:15:01.870 --> 00:15:04.309 at the time, even the glowing ones, noted frame 00:15:04.309 --> 00:15:07.039 rate drops. When things got chaotic... Police 00:15:07.039 --> 00:15:09.259 helicopters, explosions, multiple gangs fighting. 00:15:09.600 --> 00:15:11.779 The PlayStation 2 would struggle to keep up. 00:15:11.840 --> 00:15:14.080 It was chugging. But nobody cared. Nobody cared 00:15:14.080 --> 00:15:16.039 because the experience was so compelling. You 00:15:16.039 --> 00:15:17.679 were willing to forgive a few dropped frames 00:15:17.679 --> 00:15:20.100 for the sheer joy of it all. Now here is where 00:15:20.100 --> 00:15:22.159 my brain breaks a little bit. We are talking 00:15:22.159 --> 00:15:25.379 about a massive open world celebrity voice casting, 00:15:25.500 --> 00:15:28.299 a new physics engine for bikes, hours of audio. 00:15:28.720 --> 00:15:31.100 How long do you think they spent making it? Well, 00:15:31.120 --> 00:15:33.000 looking at modern standards, a game like GTA 00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:35.360 V or Red Dead Redemption 2 takes seven, maybe 00:15:35.360 --> 00:15:38.539 eight years. Right. A huge portion of a decade. 00:15:38.559 --> 00:15:42.440 So Vice City, three years, four. Nine months. 00:15:42.759 --> 00:15:46.240 No, I can't be right. Nine months. From the start 00:15:46.240 --> 00:15:49.259 of full production to shipping. Nine months. 00:15:49.320 --> 00:15:51.320 That sounds physically impossible. How do you 00:15:51.320 --> 00:15:54.240 even manage the asset pipeline for that? That's 00:15:54.240 --> 00:15:56.059 not a development cycle. That's a pregnancy. 00:15:56.139 --> 00:15:58.940 It borders on impossible. Full production started 00:15:58.940 --> 00:16:02.039 in late 2001, right as GTA Re was finishing, 00:16:02.200 --> 00:16:05.149 and they shipped in October 2002. Talk about 00:16:05.149 --> 00:16:06.750 crunch. The team must have been living at the 00:16:06.750 --> 00:16:08.809 office. The crunch must have been astronomical. 00:16:09.970 --> 00:16:11.710 But you also have to remember the scope initially. 00:16:12.090 --> 00:16:14.049 As we said at the top, it was discussed as a 00:16:14.049 --> 00:16:16.789 mission pack for GTA 3. Just some new weapons, 00:16:16.929 --> 00:16:19.009 new cars, new missions in the same city. So it 00:16:19.009 --> 00:16:21.789 was going to be DLC before DLC was really a thing. 00:16:21.929 --> 00:16:24.659 Essentially. But once they started modeling the 00:16:24.659 --> 00:16:27.100 80s assets and saw the potential of the setting, 00:16:27.259 --> 00:16:30.679 the teams, specifically the leadership at Rockstar 00:16:30.679 --> 00:16:33.360 North in Scotland, realized, no, this is a standalone 00:16:33.360 --> 00:16:35.480 game. They just decided to make a whole new game 00:16:35.480 --> 00:16:38.259 instead of an expansion. They pivoted hard. They 00:16:38.259 --> 00:16:40.899 reused the engine. They reused some code. But 00:16:40.899 --> 00:16:43.240 they built an entirely new world on top of it 00:16:43.240 --> 00:16:45.580 in less than a year. And a very profitable one. 00:16:45.659 --> 00:16:48.139 What did it cost to make? The budget figures 00:16:48.139 --> 00:16:50.399 are fascinating. The development budget was about 00:16:50.399 --> 00:16:53.000 $5 million. Which is practically indie budget 00:16:53.000 --> 00:16:55.360 territory today. I mean, it's nothing. Nothing. 00:16:55.379 --> 00:16:59.139 But the marketing budget, $13 .2 million. Wow. 00:16:59.279 --> 00:17:02.019 So they spent more than double on hype than they 00:17:02.019 --> 00:17:04.019 did on actually making the game? That tells you 00:17:04.019 --> 00:17:05.980 everything about the machine Rockstar was building. 00:17:06.480 --> 00:17:08.859 They knew they had a hit, and they pushed it 00:17:08.859 --> 00:17:11.440 hard. TV spots, magazine covers, the soundtrack 00:17:11.440 --> 00:17:14.599 release. The hype was deafening. I remember it. 00:17:14.619 --> 00:17:16.480 You couldn't escape it. They actually had to 00:17:16.480 --> 00:17:18.640 push the release date back a week from October 00:17:18.640 --> 00:17:22.619 22. to October 29, just to meet product demand. 00:17:22.940 --> 00:17:25.500 They couldn't press enough discs in time. And 00:17:25.500 --> 00:17:27.940 the team size for this nine -month miracle. A 00:17:27.940 --> 00:17:30.359 core team of about 50 people at Rockstar North. 00:17:30.599 --> 00:17:33.480 50 people. Imagine 50 people making a game that 00:17:33.480 --> 00:17:36.339 sells 17 million copies today. It's unheard of. 00:17:36.519 --> 00:17:38.839 It speaks to a different era of development. 00:17:39.279 --> 00:17:42.680 Less bureaucracy, perhaps, but certainly an intense, 00:17:42.839 --> 00:17:45.490 probably unsustainable workload. So the game 00:17:45.490 --> 00:17:48.730 comes out. It sells 1 .4 million copies in two 00:17:48.730 --> 00:17:51.230 days. It's the fastest selling game in history 00:17:51.230 --> 00:17:53.730 at that point. Everyone loves it. Well, players 00:17:53.730 --> 00:17:56.509 and critics loved it. Metacritic score is 95. 00:17:57.509 --> 00:18:01.809 But everyone is a strong word. Because with that 00:18:01.809 --> 00:18:05.369 level of visibility comes scrutiny. And as soon 00:18:05.369 --> 00:18:07.769 as it landed. the controversy started. Yeah, 00:18:07.869 --> 00:18:10.369 this is the legal fights part of our title. GTA 00:18:10.369 --> 00:18:12.809 has always been controversial, but Vice City 00:18:12.809 --> 00:18:15.210 seemed to hit a different nerve. It did. There 00:18:15.210 --> 00:18:17.430 were several fronts to this cultural war. First, 00:18:17.529 --> 00:18:19.630 there was the issue of ethnic representation. 00:18:19.990 --> 00:18:22.269 The Haitian and Cuban gangs. Right. The game 00:18:22.269 --> 00:18:24.690 features a gang war between Cubans and Haitians. 00:18:24.769 --> 00:18:26.650 You do missions for both sides, playing them 00:18:26.650 --> 00:18:28.670 off against each other. And this didn't sit well 00:18:28.670 --> 00:18:31.329 with community groups in New York. No. In November 00:18:31.329 --> 00:18:34.319 2003, The Haitian Centers Council staged a protest 00:18:34.319 --> 00:18:36.960 in New York City. They claimed the game urged 00:18:36.960 --> 00:18:39.500 players to harm Haitian immigrants. Because there 00:18:39.500 --> 00:18:42.019 were specific lines of dialogue. There were. 00:18:42.960 --> 00:18:45.680 Instructional lines in a mission, like kill the 00:18:45.680 --> 00:18:48.640 Haitians, that they found hateful and inciting. 00:18:48.779 --> 00:18:51.420 And this wasn't just a small picket line. The 00:18:51.420 --> 00:18:53.440 mayor got involved. Mayor Michael Bloomberg. 00:18:53.740 --> 00:18:56.160 Yeah. He threatened legal action against Take 00:18:56.160 --> 00:18:58.519 -Two Interactive, the parent company. It became 00:18:58.519 --> 00:19:00.970 a serious political issue. So how did Rockstar 00:19:00.970 --> 00:19:03.150 respond? Did they double down with their usual, 00:19:03.250 --> 00:19:06.990 you know, it's satire defense? They started with 00:19:06.990 --> 00:19:10.630 that. They argued it was context specific, that 00:19:10.630 --> 00:19:12.970 you fight everyone in the game, not just Haitians. 00:19:13.089 --> 00:19:15.650 But they eventually agreed to remove the offensive 00:19:15.650 --> 00:19:18.380 statements from future copies of the game. That's 00:19:18.380 --> 00:19:20.539 rare for Rockstar. They usually hold their ground. 00:19:20.680 --> 00:19:22.519 It is. But I think they saw that the political 00:19:22.519 --> 00:19:24.220 pressure was just too much. But that was just 00:19:24.220 --> 00:19:27.000 the warm up. The much darker, heavier controversy 00:19:27.000 --> 00:19:29.059 and the one that really threatened the industry 00:19:29.059 --> 00:19:32.460 was the accusation that the game caused real 00:19:32.460 --> 00:19:34.779 world violence. The violence causes violence 00:19:34.779 --> 00:19:37.119 argument. This was the era where every time a 00:19:37.119 --> 00:19:39.460 tragedy happened, the media looked for a video 00:19:39.460 --> 00:19:42.039 game connection. And with Vice City, they found 00:19:42.039 --> 00:19:45.309 some disturbing cases. We have to slow down and 00:19:45.309 --> 00:19:47.410 really look at the Devin Moore case because it 00:19:47.410 --> 00:19:49.630 wasn't just a tabloid headline. It was a potential 00:19:49.630 --> 00:19:52.230 constitutional crisis for gaming. This is a heavy 00:19:52.230 --> 00:19:55.130 story. Tell us what happened. In 2003, Devin 00:19:55.130 --> 00:19:57.950 Moore was 18. He was brought into a police station 00:19:57.950 --> 00:20:00.710 in Fayette, Alabama on stolen vehicle charge. 00:20:00.930 --> 00:20:03.869 He had no history of violent crime. While he 00:20:03.869 --> 00:20:06.390 was being booked, he grabbed an officer's gun, 00:20:06.589 --> 00:20:09.069 shot and killed two policemen and a dispatcher, 00:20:09.089 --> 00:20:12.829 and fled in a patrol car. It sounds horrifyingly 00:20:12.829 --> 00:20:14.890 like a... The scenario from the game. That was 00:20:14.890 --> 00:20:17.509 the argument. After he was caught, he reportedly 00:20:17.509 --> 00:20:20.470 told police, life is like a video game. Everybody's 00:20:20.470 --> 00:20:23.269 got to die sometime. Chilling. Extremely. This 00:20:23.269 --> 00:20:26.549 led to a $600 million lawsuit filed against Rockstar, 00:20:26.750 --> 00:20:29.970 Sony, GameStop, and even Walmart. The families 00:20:29.970 --> 00:20:32.329 of the victims sued. And entering the ring here 00:20:32.329 --> 00:20:34.589 is a name that gamers from the 2000s will remember 00:20:34.589 --> 00:20:38.049 vividly. Jack Thompson. The attorney who basically 00:20:38.049 --> 00:20:40.049 made it his life's mission to destroy Grand Theft 00:20:40.049 --> 00:20:42.869 Auto. He became the face of the anti -video game 00:20:42.869 --> 00:20:45.990 crusade. But we need to understand his legal 00:20:45.990 --> 00:20:50.670 strategy here. It was very clever in a very dangerous 00:20:50.670 --> 00:20:53.329 way. He wasn't just suing for negligence. He 00:20:53.329 --> 00:20:55.430 was suing on the basis of product liability. 00:20:55.990 --> 00:20:58.690 Product liability. Like if a toaster explodes 00:20:58.690 --> 00:21:02.529 or a car has a bad brake line. Exactly. Thompson 00:21:02.529 --> 00:21:04.589 argued that Vice City wasn't speech protected 00:21:04.589 --> 00:21:07.289 by the First Amendment. He argued it was a defective 00:21:07.289 --> 00:21:10.430 product. He claimed the code itself, the interaction 00:21:10.430 --> 00:21:13.190 of input and on -screen violence, was a murder 00:21:13.190 --> 00:21:15.950 simulator designed to train reflexes. He was 00:21:15.950 --> 00:21:18.130 trying to say the game itself was a weapon. She's 00:21:18.130 --> 00:21:20.690 trying to bypass free speech laws by categorizing 00:21:20.690 --> 00:21:23.009 the game as a physical training tool. That is 00:21:23.009 --> 00:21:25.269 a terrifying precedent. If he wins that argument, 00:21:25.529 --> 00:21:27.690 basically every action movie or book could be 00:21:27.690 --> 00:21:29.630 considered a training tool. That was the fear. 00:21:29.789 --> 00:21:32.710 The entire industry held its breath. If the Alabama 00:21:32.710 --> 00:21:35.109 court had accepted that Vice City was a defective 00:21:35.109 --> 00:21:37.690 product rather than art... It would have opened 00:21:37.690 --> 00:21:40.769 the floodgates. Rockstar, Sony, Walmart, they 00:21:40.769 --> 00:21:42.349 would have been liable for every crime committed 00:21:42.349 --> 00:21:44.250 by anyone who played their games. The industry 00:21:44.250 --> 00:21:46.410 would have collapsed. So why didn't it stick? 00:21:46.569 --> 00:21:49.630 What was the defense? It comes down to a legal 00:21:49.630 --> 00:21:52.250 standard known as strict scrutiny. The courts 00:21:52.250 --> 00:21:54.170 eventually ruled that video games are expressive 00:21:54.170 --> 00:21:57.130 speech, like books or films. Right. To ban or 00:21:57.130 --> 00:21:59.990 penalize them, the state needs a compelling interest. 00:22:00.809 --> 00:22:03.890 And Thompson couldn't prove scientifically that 00:22:03.890 --> 00:22:07.029 playing the game caused the behavior. Correlation 00:22:07.029 --> 00:22:09.589 isn't causation. There was no direct link. So 00:22:09.589 --> 00:22:13.730 Rockstar won. Legally, yes. In the Moore case, 00:22:13.910 --> 00:22:16.769 the First Amendment protection held strong. A 00:22:16.769 --> 00:22:18.990 similar case involving Cody Posey in New Mexico 00:22:18.990 --> 00:22:21.769 was dismissed because the state had no jurisdiction 00:22:21.769 --> 00:22:24.930 over the companies. And Jack Thompson, well, 00:22:25.009 --> 00:22:27.430 his conduct in these trials eventually led to 00:22:27.430 --> 00:22:29.609 him being disbarred. He was removed from the 00:22:29.609 --> 00:22:32.029 Moore case for unprofessional conduct, right? 00:22:32.109 --> 00:22:34.819 Yes. But even though Rockstar won in court, these 00:22:34.819 --> 00:22:38.119 cases fueled a decade -long moral panic. It framed 00:22:38.119 --> 00:22:40.119 the conversation around gaming for a generation 00:22:40.119 --> 00:22:42.880 of parents. It forced Rockstar to become very 00:22:42.880 --> 00:22:45.539 defensive, very litigious about its image. There 00:22:45.539 --> 00:22:48.000 was also a lighter, weirder lawsuit, wasn't there? 00:22:48.059 --> 00:22:51.400 The one involving the psychic? Ah, yes. The Antipoulet 00:22:51.400 --> 00:22:54.859 case. There is a character in the game, a Haitian 00:22:54.859 --> 00:22:57.519 matriarch named Antipoulet. She was voiced by 00:22:57.519 --> 00:23:00.180 Uri Harris. Better known to the world as Miss 00:23:00.180 --> 00:23:04.519 Cleo. Call me now. Exactly. Years later, in July 00:23:04.519 --> 00:23:07.680 2017, so we're talking 15 years after the game 00:23:07.680 --> 00:23:11.660 came out, the Psychic Readers Network sued Rockstar. 00:23:12.160 --> 00:23:14.180 They claimed the character infringed on their 00:23:14.180 --> 00:23:16.700 copyright of the Miss Cleo persona. Wait, 15 00:23:16.700 --> 00:23:18.460 years later? Isn't there a statute of limitations 00:23:18.460 --> 00:23:20.829 on that kind of thing? There is. Usually three 00:23:20.829 --> 00:23:23.369 years for copyright infringement. Legal experts 00:23:23.369 --> 00:23:25.250 at the time pointed out that it was a massive 00:23:25.250 --> 00:23:26.769 hurdle. It seems to have been a bit of a Hail 00:23:26.769 --> 00:23:29.390 Mary. But it just goes to show how long the tale 00:23:29.390 --> 00:23:31.650 of this game is. It was generating legal headlines 00:23:31.650 --> 00:23:34.109 nearly two decades after release. So let's talk 00:23:34.109 --> 00:23:36.210 about that legacy. Because despite the lawsuits, 00:23:36.329 --> 00:23:38.809 despite the controversy, the game was a monster 00:23:38.809 --> 00:23:41.849 hit. An absolute monster. It sold 17 .5 million 00:23:41.849 --> 00:23:44.450 copies globally as of 2008. It was a best -selling 00:23:44.450 --> 00:23:47.349 game of 2002. It earned a Diamond Award in the 00:23:47.349 --> 00:23:50.190 UK for over a million sales. It was a phenomenon. 00:23:50.410 --> 00:23:53.710 And it's been ported to everything. Xbox, PC, 00:23:54.089 --> 00:23:56.670 Mac, mobile. I remember playing it on my iPad 00:23:56.670 --> 00:23:58.789 and thinking, this is the whole game on a slab 00:23:58.789 --> 00:24:01.410 of glass. It was mind -blowing. It has incredible 00:24:01.410 --> 00:24:04.450 staying power. But that legacy has had some bumps 00:24:04.450 --> 00:24:06.369 in the road recently. You're talking about the 00:24:06.369 --> 00:24:10.589 definitive edition. 2021 Rockstar released remastered 00:24:10.589 --> 00:24:14.690 versions of GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas. 00:24:16.349 --> 00:24:18.269 It didn't go well. That is putting it mildly. 00:24:18.309 --> 00:24:21.029 It was buggy. The art style looked weirdly plastic. 00:24:21.329 --> 00:24:23.250 The characters looked like cartoons. The rain 00:24:23.250 --> 00:24:25.430 effect was so bad it was practically unplayable. 00:24:25.529 --> 00:24:28.319 A lot of the environmental charm. That haze we 00:24:28.319 --> 00:24:30.579 talked about earlier was stripped away by AI 00:24:30.579 --> 00:24:32.960 upscaling algorithms that didn't understand the 00:24:32.960 --> 00:24:35.599 artistic intent. It looked clean, but it lost 00:24:35.599 --> 00:24:38.039 its soul. And to add insult to injury, they removed 00:24:38.039 --> 00:24:40.579 the original versions from digital stores to 00:24:40.579 --> 00:24:42.579 force people to buy the new one. There was a 00:24:42.579 --> 00:24:45.140 massive backlash, a huge outcry from the community. 00:24:45.339 --> 00:24:47.400 They eventually restored the originals to the 00:24:47.400 --> 00:24:50.119 Rockstar store, but it damaged the brand's reputation 00:24:50.119 --> 00:24:52.660 for perfectionism. It felt like a cash grab. 00:24:52.990 --> 00:24:55.210 But the fans haven't given up on the game. In 00:24:55.210 --> 00:24:57.589 fact, the fans are working harder than the developers 00:24:57.589 --> 00:25:00.109 in some cases. This is a fascinating subplot. 00:25:00.329 --> 00:25:03.849 The code war. The code war. I like that. What 00:25:03.849 --> 00:25:07.009 is it? In 2020, a fan team released something 00:25:07.009 --> 00:25:10.609 called ReVC. They had completely reverse engineered 00:25:10.609 --> 00:25:13.670 the game code. Now, for the listener, reverse 00:25:13.670 --> 00:25:16.549 engineering isn't just copying files. It's looking 00:25:16.549 --> 00:25:19.130 at the compiled game and working backward to 00:25:19.130 --> 00:25:21.109 figure out the source code. It's like taking 00:25:21.109 --> 00:25:23.029 a cake and trying to write the recipe for it 00:25:23.029 --> 00:25:25.609 just by looking at it. A perfect analogy. And 00:25:25.609 --> 00:25:28.069 it's incredibly difficult. Why do that? Why go 00:25:28.069 --> 00:25:29.730 to all that trouble? Because once you have the 00:25:29.730 --> 00:25:32.170 source code, you can do anything. You can fix 00:25:32.170 --> 00:25:34.630 bugs the original developers left. You can add 00:25:34.630 --> 00:25:37.210 modern features like widescreen support. You 00:25:37.210 --> 00:25:39.190 can port it to platforms it was never meant for, 00:25:39.309 --> 00:25:41.910 like the Nintendo Switch or Wii U. It's about 00:25:41.910 --> 00:25:44.089 preservation. And Take -Two, the publisher, was 00:25:44.089 --> 00:25:45.730 totally cool with that, right? High fives all 00:25:45.730 --> 00:25:49.440 around. Hard no. Take -Two issued DMCA takedowns. 00:25:49.440 --> 00:25:52.200 The fans actually filed counter notices claiming 00:25:52.200 --> 00:25:54.539 fair use for preservation and interoperability. 00:25:55.160 --> 00:25:58.059 Take -Two then sued them in 2021. So they're 00:25:58.059 --> 00:26:00.200 actively fighting the people who love the game 00:26:00.200 --> 00:26:02.920 the most. It highlights the tension between preservation 00:26:02.920 --> 00:26:06.079 fans keeping the game alive and intellectual 00:26:06.079 --> 00:26:08.640 property protection. The company wants to control 00:26:08.640 --> 00:26:11.299 its IP. And it's still happening. I saw a report 00:26:11.299 --> 00:26:15.119 from January 2025 just last year about Russian 00:26:15.119 --> 00:26:18.269 modders. Yes. A group of Russian modders released 00:26:18.269 --> 00:26:21.309 a next -gen edition, porting Vice City into the 00:26:21.309 --> 00:26:25.190 GTA IV engine. It looked incredible. Modern physics, 00:26:25.450 --> 00:26:27.789 lighting, everything. And Take -Two's reaction? 00:26:28.109 --> 00:26:30.130 Take -Two struck it down, deleted the trailer, 00:26:30.309 --> 00:26:32.710 deleted the YouTube channel. But there's a geopolitical 00:26:32.710 --> 00:26:36.690 twist there. There is. Due to sanctions and the 00:26:36.690 --> 00:26:38.890 legal landscape following the invasion of Ukraine, 00:26:39.150 --> 00:26:41.230 enforcing copyright against Russian entities 00:26:41.230 --> 00:26:43.910 is complicated. The lawyers can send letters, 00:26:43.970 --> 00:26:46.160 but they can't exactly walk in. to a Moscow court 00:26:46.160 --> 00:26:48.440 and demand an injunction right now, so the mod 00:26:48.440 --> 00:26:50.779 might survive simply because of the geopolitical 00:26:50.779 --> 00:26:53.880 friction. It's wild that a game from 2002 is 00:26:53.880 --> 00:26:56.420 part of a geopolitical copyright standoff in 00:26:56.420 --> 00:26:59.180 2025. It's Beast of the Love people have for 00:26:59.180 --> 00:27:00.940 this setting. They don't just want to play a 00:27:00.940 --> 00:27:03.519 game, they want to inhabit that world. And they're 00:27:03.519 --> 00:27:05.539 going to get to do it again soon. Grand Theft 00:27:05.539 --> 00:27:09.259 Auto VI is scheduled for 2026, and we know it's 00:27:09.259 --> 00:27:12.099 returning to a modern version of Vice City. Which 00:27:12.099 --> 00:27:14.430 brings it full circle. The fact that they are 00:27:14.430 --> 00:27:16.529 returning to the setting proves that Vice City 00:27:16.529 --> 00:27:19.109 wasn't just a sequel. It was a place that captured 00:27:19.109 --> 00:27:21.890 the imagination of millions. It's the spiritual 00:27:21.890 --> 00:27:24.769 home of the franchise. So as we wrap up this 00:27:24.769 --> 00:27:27.430 deep dive, how do we summarize Vice City? What 00:27:27.430 --> 00:27:30.180 was its ultimate impact? I think Vice City was 00:27:30.180 --> 00:27:33.259 the moment video games grew up and moved out 00:27:33.259 --> 00:27:35.960 of the basement. It proved you could have Hollywood 00:27:35.960 --> 00:27:39.140 acting, radio quality soundtracks, and complex 00:27:39.140 --> 00:27:42.359 adult narratives all in one package. It was a 00:27:42.359 --> 00:27:44.339 cultural pivot point. It was the moment games 00:27:44.339 --> 00:27:46.980 became cool, like culturally relevant to people 00:27:46.980 --> 00:27:49.420 who didn't play games. Precisely. But here is 00:27:49.420 --> 00:27:51.079 a provocative thought to leave you with. Hit 00:27:51.079 --> 00:27:53.059 me. We talked about the gameplay loop moving 00:27:53.059 --> 00:27:55.660 from a street thug to a business owner, acquiring 00:27:55.660 --> 00:27:58.660 assets, building an empire. You stop. being a 00:27:58.660 --> 00:28:00.559 criminal and start being the institution right 00:28:00.559 --> 00:28:02.940 you become the man you go from knocking over 00:28:02.940 --> 00:28:06.160 the bank to owning the bank does that shift from 00:28:06.160 --> 00:28:10.079 rebel to ceo mirror the trajectory of the grand 00:28:10.079 --> 00:28:14.119 theft auto franchise itself it started as a rebellious 00:28:14.119 --> 00:28:17.480 controversial outlier a punk rock product that 00:28:17.480 --> 00:28:20.940 everyone wanted to ban and now and now It is 00:28:20.940 --> 00:28:22.920 the most profitable entertainment product on 00:28:22.920 --> 00:28:26.039 Earth. It is the establishment. It's the institution. 00:28:26.440 --> 00:28:28.519 Rockstar became the Tommy Vercetti of the gaming 00:28:28.519 --> 00:28:30.640 industry. They own the town now. And just like 00:28:30.640 --> 00:28:32.680 Tommy, they took out all the competition along 00:28:32.680 --> 00:28:34.839 the way. That is a fascinating way to look at 00:28:34.839 --> 00:28:38.960 it. From 1986 to 2026, the empire stands. Thank 00:28:38.960 --> 00:28:40.700 you so much for taking this ride back to the 00:28:40.700 --> 00:28:42.539 80s with us. My pleasure. Just remember to wear 00:28:42.539 --> 00:28:44.839 your seatbelt. Always. Thanks for listening to 00:28:44.839 --> 00:28:46.299 The Deep Dive. Catch you next time.