Grand Theft Auto is a Nintendo Franchise

[Super_Cool]

No, this isn't ASB. In the mid-90's, Nintendo attempted to create a "Dream Team" to work on the Nintendo 64. The most famous member was obviously Rare, who created the Banjo-Kazooie franchise and Goldeneye 007.

A lesser known member was a small British company called DMA Design, known today as ... Rockstar North. Unfortunately, the relationship turned sour, only getting one game out of the collaboration, Body Harvest, which was actually dropped by Nintendo and published by Midway.

It was a wild four-year ride for DMA Design, as EDGE details in their excellent history of Body Harvest's development. To summarize, DMA Design put two years of work into an action game and showed off their progress to Nintendo. Unfortunately for the team, Nintendo was not happy with the way the game was being handled. They sent out several Nintendo staff members, including one producer of the Zelda 64 project, over to Dundee, Scotland to try to rework the project - an RPG overhaul was suggested, of all things (although, considering that the Nintendo 64 was hurting in that department and is considered to be a major reason the console had a lukewarm reception in Japan, it's not much of a surprise), which DMA apprehensively agreed to. DMA Design and Nintendo made attempts to turn Body Harvest into an RPG, with DMA going to Nintendo HQ in a last-ditch effort to get it done, working next door to the Star Fox team for two weeks. Upon their return, the Body Harvest team discovered that the development of another DMA title, Zenith, was canned in their absence, and now had the opportunity of welcoming that staff into the chaotic Body Harvest cycle. After their addition, the game took on the gameplay it featured today - a third person action/shooter hybrid that enabled its hero to hop into any vehicle around him. Nintendo was not pleased, and dropped the project after three years. Gremlin Interactive bought out DMA Design and released the final product in Europe, while Midway picked it up for America, falling right in between Rare's Banjo-Kazooie and Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and getting lost in the shuffle.

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/bodyharvest/bodyharvest.htm

DMA would later go on to create Grand Theft Auto, which became one of the best selling mature franchises of video games.

Suppose the relationship continued and Nintendo was the publisher of Grand Theft Auto III on GameCube. How would this effect gaming history?

 

[Nivek]

Let's say they keep that, make Body harvest either an RPG or keep the proto 3d gta idea, them nintendo decided to keep both 2D GTA(in N64 drought would be pleased and would be interesting game)

Let's say GTAIII is ready for gamecube early launch(post launch, just before or after melee who was the killer app) and the game is not change at all(Maybe the prostitute will be out, Nintendo have certain standard), i can imagine become a second goldeneye and making that impact for creating Sandbox for console(as Goldeneye proved how to do modern FPS)

SO DMA(never change the name) as the scothish retro? besides that i can imagine major changes, beside a GTA trilogy for wii and GTAIV being a super san andreas... and V being Wii U

I can imagine DMA being an early monolith, a nintendo studio with his niche famed for his games and techical achivement

 

[idontlikesand]

Liberty City might be based on Tokyo instead of new york.

 

[U.S David]

GTA won't be as popular or make as much money without it being on play station or xbox

 

[Custard Cream Monster]

GTA won't be as popular or make as much money without it being on play station or xbox

I think you might have that the wrong way round. Beside, it may well butterfly Microsoft's entry in to the console market.

 

[Nivek]

GTA won't be as popular or make as much money without it being on play station or xbox

Debatable as the game was largely uknown(almost few people knew of the rpedecessor) until the new genre who invented was vial to advance 3D generation who was the sixth generation, as FPS in console was irrelevant before Goldeneye(even all the Doom port were unable to be massive)

I think you might have that the wrong way round. Beside, it may well butterfly Microsoft's entry in to the console market.

MS still have Halo as their killer app and when even the late port of GTA sold well, would not affect as much as MS making his own version(Crackdown, Saint Row) as sony would too.

Umm maybe GTA being more asian ,like a more adult and violent version of Yazuka?

 

[Custard Cream Monster]

A key thing here would be it would signal a break from the Nintendo policy of being more "family friendly" than other consoles, meaning that it could have big effects on the industry as a whole - perhaps removing such an image applied to Mario et al would stop the issue of the "violent toys for children" issue.

 

[SLCer]

Wasn't part of DMA's break with Nintendo over the supposed violence of Body Harvest? So, what changes to allow Nintendo to accept one of the most contentious video games in history?

Back in the 00s, when Carmageddon was ported to the N64, they changed the humans to zombies ... so, it wasn't as brutal, I guess, running over, and killing, a zombie instead of a human.

What changes to allow Nintendo to go forward on a title that, while not as brutal, still had a very similar premise - in the sense that you were allowed to run over humans (even in GTA 1 and 2 you could kill random pedestrians)?