Från bowling med Roman Bellic i Grand Theft Auto IV eller tennis som Michael i Grand Theft Auto V till det överraskande underhållande Table Tennis - Rockstar är inte främmande för sport. Nu vet vi tack vare VGC att den legendariska utvecklaren var nära att göra ett wrestlingspel vid millennieskiftet.
Youtube-kanalen Hard4Games intervjuade brottaren Tommy Dreamer angående nyligen släppt alfamaterial från spelet ECW Hardcore Revolution från 2000. Dreamer, som var en del av brottningsföretaget ECW på den tiden och därmed inkluderad i spelet, hade en intressant anekdot att dela med sig av:
"There was a fan, who worked for this company, and they were like 'man, we want this ECW game to be our number two behind this other game, and it's revolutionary, it's a perfect fit for ECW. They all came to an ECW Arena show and this one guy was such a big fan, and all this stuff was supposed to happen. They [said], 'we just need our one game to hit, and if that game hits you will be our next game.'
And we couldn't wait due to financial reasons, because Acclaim had lost its license for WWE, so now they offered us money on the back end as opposed to the front end. But that other game, that if it hit we were going to take off - that game and that franchise was Grand Theft Auto. And you think about how ECW would have fit that whole genre, and that guy was Kevin Gill, who worked there, he was a big ECW fan."
I en tidigare intervju med kanalen TruHeelHeatWrestling, som också grävts fram av VGC, berättade samma Kevin Gill, som vid den tiden var medlem av Rockstars produktionsteam, en liknande historia:
"I actually put together a deal for Rockstar Games to do the ECW video game. I had put together a deal with [ECW owner] Paul Heyman, we had a series of meetings, and one weekend I rented a van and brought the whole Rockstar Games team, like a 15-passenger van, and brought everyone down to the ECW Arena in Philly to see it in person."
Enligt Gill misslyckades affären i slutändan, inte för att Rockstar väntade på att Grand Theft Auto skulle släppas, utan för att de var osäkra på om ECW hade tillräckligt lång livslängd:
"[ECW]'s financial situation was getting very shaky and at that time, this is 1998, could have been 1999, all the talent was leaving. There were a lot of questions in the [wrestling press] about talent being owed money and those types of things. And video games take so many years to develop, and cost so much to develop. It was put to me like, 'do you think ECW will be around in two and a half or three years when we put out this game?.'"
ECW gick till slut i konkurs 2001 och köptes upp av WWE, samma år som Rockstar släppte Grand Theft Auto III och förändrade spellandskapet för alltid.
