We released gta San Andreas 20 years ago. October 26, 2004.
Game releases were different back then. It took 6 weeks for the DVDs to be produced, boxed and distributed. Patches over the internet were not yet a thing.
For us, all of the stress had happened at the cut-off point, 6 weeks prior. No big issues had come up. Most devs had taken a holiday and we were already thinking about our next project.
Digital distribution didn’t exist yet. Games were typically released on a Tuesday/Wednesday in the US and Fridays in the UK. Same for SA. The internet was crap and apart from a couple of trailers, gamers didn’t know too much about the game. For big games, stores would open at Midnight before release day so that pre-orders could be picked up. I only later found out, the publisher has to pay the stores to make these late openings happen.
I went to the biggest store near the R*North offices, which was HMV on Princess Street, Edinburgh. Even though it was a drizzly night, the line meandered all through the store and spilled out onto the street. It was mind-blowing to see all those people so excited, going home to play the game all through the night.
