In a rather shocking find, someone has uncovered a pre-release development build of Grand Theft Auto IV on an Xbox 360 bought at a car boot sale in Edinburgh for just £5, and shared on fan forums dedicated to the series (via Tom's Hardware).
The development kit contains content from a 2007 build of the game, showcasing a huge amount of cut content. It appears the console belonged to Rockstar North Ltd, which is also based in Edinburgh, Scotland, making it easy to see how this unit may have slipped out.
The November 2007 development build of Grand Theft Auto IV, just months before its April 2008 release, reveals a significant amount of cut content.
This includes an early version of the game’s ferry system, which appeared in trailers but never made it into the final release, along with different radio stations and changes to weapons.
Perhaps most interesting is a scrapped zombies mode, with files referencing zombies, hospital beds, early models, and animations that were ultimately cut.
The full early build of the game was found on the 120 GB hard drive attached to the Xbox 360 development kit, with the full 118 GB being pulled and uploaded online for people to go through, with some even getting some of the cut content actually working and showing off the game's beta build.
What do you make of the GTA IV leak?
I have rather fond memories of playing Grand Theft Auto IV online, whether it was going on the ridiculous hunt for Rat Man, which never actually existed, or just messing around with friends while chatting for hours.
It was also the last GTA game I really enjoyed, so seeing all this leaked content is genuinely interesting. It is worth digging through GTAForums to see what else has been uncovered.
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