Creator of the Metal Gear franchise, Hideo Kojima, is probably the most successful game designer alive but he still tried and failed to imitate GTA III.
"When GTA III came out, we were on Metal Gear Solid 2. At that point we tried to create something similar and we were completely unable to come up with this design to similar success," he admitted in an interview during the BAFTA ceremony.
"To be honest, looking at [Rockstar's] success at doing what we tried to do and failed, we went back and made the game engine we first tried, to ensure the freedom the player would have. So more than being inspired by them, to be honest they just went ahead of us, they were more successful than what we were trying to create back then."
Kojima's upcoming Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes is an open-world stealth game, but he doesn't believe that it is similar to Grand Theft Auto. "Now, game-wise what we are trying to create [in Ground Zeroes] is something probably different than they are trying to create," he explained. "We're trying to ensure the freedom so the player can do some more realistic stealth infiltration by having all this freedom. So, I believe we're creating different games."