Design documents for several Grand Theft Auto titles, including GTA 3, have leaked online, showing ambitious plans for the franchise.
According to multiple reports, the design documents date back to 2001, but were uploaded on December 17, 2024 by a GTAForums user named FrankieLiberty. According to the user, he uploaded the files because other users were selling the documents for profit.
The documents reveal that GTA 3 and GTA 3 Online had ambitious plans for the time, which would have included a faction system, a skill system, the ability to own properties, and more. The documents also show that Barking Dog Studios, who would be acquired by Take-Two Interactive in August 2002 and morphed into Rockstar Vancouver, were intended to be the game’s original developers.
As always, design documents are always overly ambitious, but the design documents are a unique glimpse into how ambitious Rockstar Games were even in the early 2000s. You can view and download the documents (at your own risk), here.
As for Rockstar Games, which is the Grand Theft Auto franchise at the time of writing, fans are eagerly awaiting the next GTA 6 trailer, which should hopefully give us a more accurate release date. At the time of writing, GTA 6 is currently scheduled to release in 2025.
What do you think of the design documents? Are you looking forward to GTA 6? Let us know in the comments or our community forum!
For more GPlayr coverage, check out the full patch notes for Tarkov’s 0.16.0.0 update.