| DevilRising said: I don't think there's really much of an argument to be made here. One game helped establish a "new" genre of so-called "Sandbox" games. The other literally showed everyone else how to do 3D gaming correctly. You tell me which one had the bigger impact. |
GTA 3 had the bigger impact. Mario 64 showed everyone how to do 3D gaming correctly but we're talking about influence, not who's is better and who's is worse. Open world games are MUCH more popular and have only gotten bigger and bigger. GTA 5 just released last year to record-breaking sales smashing expectations. Mario 64 sold 11.89 million units and not many, if any, 3D platformers have passed the success seen by Mario 64. I just don't see the comparison, I'm sorry. Not to take anything away from Mario 64 considering it was the game that did everything right but I don't see the influence when 3D platformers are hardly ever released compared to open world games like ES, Fallout, Assassins Creed and the likes.
I know there were many other factors at play during the PS2 days but for anyone who wasn't gaming yet at that time it was GTA 3 that helped PS2 absolutely dominate that generation. That is the influence that GTA 3 had. The PS2 was the console to own simply because GTA 3 was on it. Not only do sales reflect that but so do the amount of open world games that were released shortly after and are still being released plentiful to this very day.
