Summary
A formerRockstar Gamesdeveloper has finally explained why ferries were cut fromGrand Theft Auto 4after appearing in the game’s very first trailer.
Despitemaking some of the biggest games of all time such as GTA and Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar Games tends to be very mysterious about its development process. It’s very rare that we ever heard about content that was cut from its games,or ever learn the truth behind some of its easter eggs and secrets.
That’s been the case for a long while now, but the veil has started to be lifted over the past few years thanks to former Rockstar Games employee, Obbe Vermeij. Vermeij worked as a technical director during his time at Rockstar and has had a hand in most of its biggest games before GTA 5,which means he’s had plenty of insight on suicidal planes,size-changing moons, andlittered streets.
Rockstar Veterans Explains Why Ferries Were Cut From GTA 4
Although most of Vermeij’s revelations are to do with the classic PS2 trilogy of GTA games, he has also shared some interesting facts and details about GTA 4,which was his final game at Rockstardue to how dark it was.As pointed out by GamesRadar+, Vermeij was recently asked about something that’s been bugging GTA fans for 17 years now - what happened to GTA 4’s ferries?
For those that don’t remember,the original reveal trailer for GTA 4 showed a ferry pulling into Liberty City’s ferry station, hinting that they’d be in the final game. That isn’t the case as, despite the ferry station still being in the game, the big boats that are supposed to be used there are nowhere to be seen.
Fans have speculated for a while why that might be and Vermeij has finally revealed why over on Twitter.In response to being asked by a fan, Vermeij said that the ferries being removed didn’t have anything to do with performance and it was instead because they caused issues with physics due to the cars sitting on the boat.
It wasn’t really because of performance. It’s more that they were causing other issues with physics (cars sitting on a boat). As well as people queuing and getting on and off. They were more trouble than they were worth. - Obbe Vermeij
That isn’t all, though, as Vermeij also said that all of the people queuing to get on and off the ferry also caused issues for the developers. All in all, ferries were simply “more trouble than they were worth”, which led to Rockstar cutting them from the game and their only appearance being in that iconic reveal trailer.
