Grand Theft Auto III was released for the Xbox in 2001.
=== Open-world design ===Grand Theft Auto III is considered to be the first 3D game in the series, using Criterion Games' RenderWare game engine
 While previous video games used open world design, including earlier Grand Theft Auto games, Grand Theft Auto III took this gameplay foundation and expanded it into a 3D world, offering an unprecedented variety of minigames and side-missions

