Mike Dailly was one of the original developers at Rockstar in creating Grand Theft Auto primarily on a prototype. On YouTube, shared footage of such content, but it appear that it’s now been taken down due to copyright strikes by Rockstar Games.
His YouTube channel used to contain videos showing off the prototype for the original GTA. However, they’ve since been taken down as he notes on twitter. He defends his usage as he was a person who worked on it, and the prototype does not contain what was ultimately used in the game’s final release.
It is a shame that such content would get taken down as a result of the company hitting him with copyright strikes. Prototype videos are always an interesting look into the behind-the-scenes for a game’s development. This also raises concern for other channels who share content of the GTA games prototype and beta stages.
Unsurprisingly, Mike Dailly was unable with this turn of events. “Developers should always be allowed to show their work, especially works that are 28 years old!”, Dailly said to PC Gamer. He also warns other content creators that this may also come their way.
This is far from the first time Rockstar Games has gotten into hot water over their decisions. Gamers were disappointed with their lack of support on Red Dead Online, as they’ve now shifted focus towards developing GTA 6.
There have also been instances of censorship within Rockstar’s older games, such as the removal of confederate flags in their GTA remastered trilogy as well as removing content from the next gen versions of GTA V due to concerns of being transphobic.