Because it got 7/10 average review scores and didn’t sell as well as GTA. Then GTA3 (and its immediate spin-offs and eventual sequels) came out and started breaking all time sales records. So retroactively, GTA 2 was “a mistake” for not being GTA 3 two years early.
But like the guy says, the point of the article even, is that you don’t create run away successes without experimenting on the formula to find what’s good, without “failures” like GTA 2 to learn from.
I also got randomly sent this image from a matrix on the technics.de server. Aside from all the antisemitism and nazi stuff, I admit I was a little charmed by it. Reminded me of timecube and the good old days of how the Internet used to be a place for nerds, outcasts, and complete fucking psychopaths.
Edit: Link to proof ཚྒྷཚྒྷ