A restaurant was planned to appear in the game called "Ping's". Audio associated with the restaurant still exists within the game's files.

There are unused textures for Tony, Mori, and Brucie's names for when playing darts in The Ballad of Gay Tony. This implies that they could all be taken out for friend activities at some point in development.

The GPS usually makes an instrumental "bing bong" sound when approaching a turn. On rare occasions, the voice will actually say, "bing bong".

During the mission, "Clean Getaway", while Niko and Vlad are walking to Vlad's car, Vlad is nearly hit by a Taxi and yells "I'm walking here" at the driver. This is a reference to a scene in the film "Midnight Cowboy", in which Dustin Hoffman is almost hit by a taxi and yells the same phrase. It may also be a reference to the film "Back to the Future Part II", in which Martin McFly Junior is almost hit by a car while crossing the street and yells the same phrase repeatedly.

In The Ballad of Gay Tony, during the mission, "Boulevard Baby", a low quality map of Salem, Massachusetts can be seen on the desk in Vic's office.

In the mission, "Wrong is Right", an email from a "Larry Ligner" sent from ligner@goldberglignerandshyster.com can be found on Oleg Minkov's computer. This would suggest that Larry was an early name for Patrick Ligner.

In the PC version of the game, the cook on the ship at the beginning of the game has a full beard; however, in the console versions of the game, he is clean shaven.

During development Michelle had a different face to the release version, as seen in the "Move Up, Ladies" trailer.

Female police officers were originally going to be implemented in the game before being cut. One can be seen in the first trailer for the game.

The Fight Club was originally going to be introduced in The Lost and Damned, but it was cut until The Ballad of Gay Tony. There are still files referencing it in The Lost and Damned.

Originally in The Lost and Damned mission, "Politics", Johnny was supposed to get a uniform to pass by security. This also means that Johnny may have been able to have changed outfits in development.

The second trailer for the game shows that Real Badman didn't originally wear a hat, unlike in the released version.

During development Ilyena Faustin wore different clothes, which can be seen in the second trailer for the game.

Niko's default outfit did not have a white stripe on the collar during development. This can be seen in multiple pre-release screenshots.

The "Vlad Glebov" trailer for the game shows a black variant of the Taxi, which is never seen in the final version.

Both Roman's clothing and hairstyle were changed during development, as seen in a pre-release screenshot.

The third trailer for the game shows that Mikhail Faustin originally had grey hair and a different hair style.

In The Ballad of Gay Tony, there was going to be a completely new vehicle introduced, the Robin, before it was scrapped. The only existence left of it is some handling files.

In The Lost and Damned, there was originally a skate park, but it was cut. You would not use a skateboard, but instead a motorcycle. There are still files hinting at its existence.

In 2010, a lawsuit was filed by Brazilian composer Hamilton Lourenço da Silva with the Civil Court in Barueri against Rockstar Games and Synergex Brazil to restrict trading and distributing of Episodes From Liberty City in Brazil, and Worldwide, due to the song "Conga Kid", which is featured in The Ballad of Gay Tony, having sampled from his song "Bota o Dedinho pro Alto" without his permission. The injunction stated that a fine of R $5,000 (US $3,000) would be issued for each day the expansion was continued to be sold.