Rare footage of Grand Theft Auto released before copyright threat

When one of the original developers behind Grand Theft Auto shared some 25-year-old never-before-seen beta footage, there was a shift response.

One of the original developers behind Grand Theft Auto, Mike Dailly, uploaded some original, never-before-seen footage of Grand Theft Auto, the original PlayStation 1 game.

His footage included prototypes of the original game but was hit with copyright strikes from Grand Theft Auto’s parent company, Take-Two Interactive.

Dailly was one of the original employees of DMA Design, co-founding the company and creating the Grand Theft Auto franchise.

He made the graphics engine for Grand Theft Auto and published a few prototypes on YouTube to showcase his work.

Rockstar and its parent company Take-Two Interactive responded by issuing copyright take-downs of his work, forcing Dailly to take his videos down.

Rockstar also forced Dailly to remove a link to download a 25-year-old design document for Grand Theft Auto 2.

Taking to Twitter, Dailly posted his outrage: “I see Rockstar are going full f*****s mode again, issuing copyright strikes to any GTA video they can find - including both my prototype videos.”

The videos affected included renders from prototyped engines, including a top-down view of city streets, and an isometric view.

The third video contained footage from a beta build of Grand Theft Auto.

Grand Theft Auto originally released on the PlayStation 1 and was a top-down arcade game. Picture: Rockstar

While Rockstar is the name known for Grand Theft Auto nowadays, DMA Design was the original creator of the series before being acquired in 1998 and subsequently renamed Rockstar North.

Speaking to PCGamer, he was frustrated at the situation. “Developers should always be allowed to show their work, especially works that are 28 years old!”

Since then, he has removed any potentially troubling work from his social media, leaving only “direct examples” of his own work that “was never used in GTA, but ‘inspired’ parts of its evolution.”

While technically still part of intellectual property, it is a little strange that Rockstar and Take-Two are being adamantly aggressive against 25-year-old design documents and prototypes.

It is impossible for these videos and documents to negatively impact the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6, which will have a more inclusive design than previous entries.

Written by Junior Miyai on behalf of GLHF.