- Start
- Oct 23, 200190% CONFIDENCEfrom the source
Grand Theft Auto III Launches on PlayStation 2 on 23 October 2001
- Grand Theft Auto III reached North American stores for the PlayStation 2 on 23 October 2001; Rockstar's news page that day read 'In Stores Now', and IGN had confirmed the game would ship to retailers on Monday 22 October with a list price of US$49.95[1][5]
- It is the first 3D game in the Grand Theft Auto series, set in Liberty City, a fictional city loosely based on New York, and was made by a core team of 23 people at DMA Design in Edinburgh working with Rockstar Games in New York[2]
- Rockstar delayed the release by three weeks on 19 September 2001 after the 11 September attacks, changing police car colours, a plane's flight path and some dialogue, and swapped the cover art for the series' signature style[2]
- IGN's launch-week review praised it as a darkly humorous crime game with a huge, complex landscape; Metacritic's average is 97 out of 100 from 56 reviews, tying it for the highest-rated PlayStation 2 game[2][4]
- Rockstar later said the game had global sales exceeding 8 million units by 29 October 2002, and Wikipedia puts it at more than 15 million in total[2][3]
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References 590% CONFIDENCEOverall confidence: 90%How well the pin's source and references back up its dates.Weighted average of how firmly 5 references, the source included, support the pin's start and end times; a reference counts half as much for every 180 days older than the newestShow all pins at 75% confidence or better
The first entry is always the pin's source. Overall confidence is a weighted average of how firmly each reference supports the start and end times used above; a reference counts half as much for every 180 days older than the newest.
- [1]90%web.archive.org/web/20011113185851/http://www.rockstargames.com/GrandTheftAuto3/html/news.htmlweb.archive.org· Posted Oct 4, 2026· Starts Oct 23, 2001 ✓· 50% of score
Rockstar's own news page for the game is headed '10/23: In Stores Now', IGN[4][5] (18 Oct 2001) confirmed with Rockstar that it ships to stores on Monday 22 October and reaches shelves as early as Tuesday 23 October, and Wikipedia[2] gives 23 October 2001 as the North American release date.
- [2]90%Grand Theft Auto III - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org· Added Oct 4, 2026· 50% of score
Release dates (PS2 23 Oct 2001 NA), development team, 9/11 delay, Metacritic 97, sales.[1]
- [3]85%Rockstar Games Ships Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - Take-Two press releaseir.take2games.com· Published Oct 29, 2002· 0% of score
States Grand Theft Auto 3 global sales exceeding 8 million units.[1]
- [4]80%Grand Theft Auto III Review - IGNign.com· Published Oct 22, 2001· 0% of score
Launch-week review of the PlayStation 2 game.[1]
- [5]85%Grand Theft Auto III Release Date Confirmed - IGNign.com· Published Oct 18, 2001· 0% of score
Rockstar confirmed shipping Mon 22 Oct, in stores as early as Tue 23 Oct, MSRP US$49.95.[1]
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