Grand Theft Auto and Minecraft are comfortably two of the biggest video game franchises in the explored universe, but they couldn't be more different. One allows players to explore an open world in pursuit of ill-gotten gains via plenty of death and destruction, while the other... well, the other kind of also does that -but it looks a heck of a lot cuter.
As it turns out, GTA and Minecraft might just have an awful lot more in common than we first thought. A wild fan theory has emerged that claims Minecraft Steve - the default avatar who recently came to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - is actually based on Tommy Vercetti, the water-hating star of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
Yuusha made the outlandish claim over on Twitter, and while they did provide what they believe is evidence (more on that in a second), I'm not entirely convinced. Regardless, I'm intrigued enough to share their findings with you today, because it's genuinely kind of mindblowing. Yuusha claims that Minecraft Steve is actually a low-poly version of Tommy from when Notch was developing a GTA-style game. A little hard to swallow at first, yes, but when you look at the two characters side by side?
Yuusha went on to direct fans to an old blog post from 2009, written by Notch regarding the development of Minecraft. If you'd rather not click the link, which I totally get, here's what he had to say:
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"The character graphics and modelling was already done for an earlier scrapped project of mine (a GTA: China Town Wars-type renderer in pure java). I realized their blocky design would fit very well in this game, and the low texture resolution means that every player can have a totally unique skin, uploaded to the other players when he or she joins the game."
As cool as this seems, I still can't help but think it's a bit of a stretch. For one thing, there's absolutely no mention of Tommy Vercetti anywhere in Notch's blog post. He also specifically says he was developing a GTA-style game, which is wholly different to a GTA fan game. That's not to say his character designs weren't inspired by actual GTA titles and existing characters like Tommy, but the only thing really linking Steve to Tommy in this instance is the fact that the two favour blue shirts.
Will we ever know for sure whether or not Minecraft Steve is actually based on the cold-blooded Tommy Vercetti? I can't imagine Microsoft or Rockstar Games would be thrilled with the confirmation, so this wild fan theory is likely to remain just that - at least for the foreseeable future.
Featured Image Credit: Microsoft/Rockstar GamesTopics: Rockstar Games, Minecraft