When working on what's easily going to be one of the year's most anticipated titles, companies obviously want to keep things secret, which occasionally entails intentionally keeping not just the public, but employees in the dark. For example, as you might well know, the working title George Lucas used for "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi" was "Blue Harvest."
Such was the case for Grand Theft Auto V publisher, Take 2 Games, which decided to inform some of the voice over artists that what they thought was "Burnout Paradise," was actually the latest chapter in the GTA franchise.
Former GnG writer Ural Garrett tweeted earlier today that he had discovered the code name from one of the game's many voice actors, in this case, Arif Kinchen. While you might not recognize the name, there's an excellent chance you've heard his voice. His list of contributions to games and movies is numerous, with works like BioShock Infinite, Aliens: Colonial Marines, every single Saints Row game, and Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.
Kinchen informed Garrett of a letter that came earlier this morning, which read:
"Good Morning! We just got the call from Take 2 Games that the project code name: Brimstone Paradise is really 'GRAND THEFT AUTO V' and has officially been released. So that means, you are now free to put that on your resumes/IMDB, talk about it with your friends and family and twitter/facebook away about your participation in the game! Take 2 Games sends a hearty THANK YOU for all your hard work and participation on the game."
Is there any significance to the name? Doesn't seem like it, but it's a handy bit of trivia for a game that analysts reckon will go on to sell enough copies to generate well over a billion dollars. The game celebrated a midnight launch last night, with throngs of crowds at several different retailers all waiting for their copy.
Rockstar chief Dan Houser recognized the series' growing audience, telling The aList Daily, "The audience has been gradually expanding - one of the things we wanted to try and do - and we did to some extent - is reach out to some older audience with LA Noire and go, 'Hey, this game is a little bit slower. It's definitely historically interesting. It's more like interactive TV shows. It's not twitch-based like some of those games. You might have a go with it and see what you think'," he said.
"With content like that, you're always trying to find a way of reaching different audiences. Even with the action games, we're trying to constantly make them easier to play, and put different difficulty levels in them so the barely-skilled 18-year-old with very short nerve endings can play at the hardest level possible. And those of us who are more afraid or whatever to begin with can play on the easiest level. The games are hopefully getting good enough as pure adventures, and they're interesting enough to play, that it's not just about shooting anymore."
Very true. There's also boobs now.
Grand Theft Auto V, or, "Brimstone Paradise," is out now for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
