Having sued the BBC in 2015 over its plans for a drama based on Grand Theft Auto, it should come as no surprise that Rockstar Games was unimpressed by the final results.
The GTA developer delivered a sharp response to The Gamechangers - which starred Daniel Radcliffe - on Twitter, while it was airing, in tweets aimed directly at the broadcaster:
@BBC This new Rentaghost isn’t as good as I remember
— Rockstar Games (@RockstarGames) September 15, 2015
@BBC Was Basil Brush busy? What exactly is this random, made up bollocks?
— Rockstar Games (@RockstarGames) September 15, 2015
Besides causing a spike in Google searches outside the UK for TV shows of the 1980s – if Netflix snaps up the Rentaghost archives now you’ll know the reason – the tweets reflected wider criticism from the games industry (including some who worked on the original Grand Theft Auto) of the programme’s accuracy and quality.
Brian Baglow, for example, ran the PR and marketing department for DMA Design, the developer of the first GTA game which was later rebranded as Rockstar North. He tweeted throughout the airing of The Gamechangers:
Hang on. Every innovation in GTA and they pick character customisation as the most important. Issuing my first #04FFFS #GameChanger
— Brian Baglow (@flackboy) September 15, 2015
I seriously doubt anyone from rockstar dressed up as East Fucking 17 to pop out & film in Compton #gamechangers
— Brian Baglow (@flackboy) September 15, 2015
WWDSD? What WOULD Don Simpson do? A better job of #gamechangers
— Brian Baglow (@flackboy) September 15, 2015
So far the ACTUAL crunch montage is reminding me of fathers Dougal & Ted trying to write their Eurovision entry #gamechangers
— Brian Baglow (@flackboy) September 15, 2015
Criticism of the drama included the quality of its dialogue; the sympathetic portrayal of lawyer Jack Thompson; its portrayal of the games-development process; and its historical accuracy.
Mike Dailly, who spent nearly 10 years as a senior programmer at DMA Design, was also tweeting his thoughts during the broadcast:
We need a new game engine! <change scene> So...we've made a new game engine... *sigh* #TheGamechangers
— Mike Dailly™ (@mdf200) September 15, 2015
Why is Jack Thomson being portrayed as the calm, intelligent guy fighting evil? He got barred didn't he? #TheGamechangers
— Mike Dailly™ (@mdf200) September 15, 2015
So I guess "Factual Drama" means... there was a true story, but we made one up. #TheGamechangers
— Mike Dailly™ (@mdf200) September 15, 2015
Steve Hammond, who wrote for DMA Design, tweeted several photos which he said showed the real setting for the original Grand Theft Auto – albeit several years before the events portrayed on screen:
GTA being created in 1996. Everyone wore their own clothes and not company branded apparel! #TheGamechangers pic.twitter.com/rB0Q5qCDAX
— Steve Hammond ⌨ (@snap2grid) September 15, 2015
This is the DMA Design office building where GTA was originally created in Dundee, Scotland. #TheGamechangers pic.twitter.com/tvxDSYluOB
— Steve Hammond ⌨ (@snap2grid) September 15, 2015
This year, Rockstar Games made it clear that it was not involved in the production, filing its trademark infringement lawsuit to “ensure that our trademarks are not misused in the BBC’s pursuit of an unofficial depiction of purported events”.
With its last game Grand Theft Auto V having trained its guns (well, its exploding smartphone prototypes) on Facebook in the form of a social network called “Lifeinvader”, it remains to be seen whether Rockstar takes similarly satirical revenge on the BBC in the next instalment in the series.
For those of you interested in a more documentary take on the original Grand Theft Auto, meanwhile, this may make for enjoyable viewing:
