Grand Theft Auto
| Grand Theft Auto | |
|---|---|
 Logo since Grand Theft Auto III (2001) | |
| Genre | Action-adventure |
| Developers | |
| Publisher | Rockstar Games |
| Creators | |
| Platforms | |
| First release | Grand Theft Auto 28 November 1997 |
| Latest release | Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition 11 November 2021 |
Grand Theft Auto (GTA) is an action-adventure video game series created by David Jones and Mike Dailly.[2] Later titles were developed under the oversight of brothers Dan and Sam Houser, Leslie Benzies and Aaron Garbut. It is primarily developed by British development house Rockstar North (formerly DMA Design), and published by its American parent company, Rockstar Games. The name of the series is a term for motor vehicle theft in the United States.
Gameplay focuses on an open world where the player can complete missions to progress an overall story, as well as engage in various side activities. Most of the gameplay revolves around driving and shooting, with occasional role-playing and stealth elements. The series also has elements of the earlier beat 'em up games from the 16-bit era. The games in the Grand Theft Auto series are set in fictional locales modelled after real-life cities, at various points in time from the early 1960s to the 2010s. The original game's map encompassed three cities—Liberty City (based on New York City), San Andreas (based on San Francisco),[a] and Vice City (based on Miami)—but later titles tend to focus on a single setting and expand upon the original three locales. Each game in the series centres on different protagonists who attempt to rise through the criminal underworld due to various motives, often accompanying themes of betrayal. Several film and music veterans have voiced characters in the games, including Ray Liotta, Dennis Hopper, Samuel L. Jackson, William Fichtner, James Woods, Debbie Harry, Axl Rose, and Peter Fonda,[3] while a few others have appeared as themselves, including Lazlow Jones, Phil Collins, Dr. Dre, and Anderson .Paak.
DMA Design began the series with 1997's Grand Theft Auto. As of 2020[update], the series consists of seven standalone titles and four expansion packs. The third main title, Grand Theft Auto III, released in 2001, is considered a landmark game, and brought the series into a three-dimensional environment for the first time. Subsequent titles have followed and built upon the format established by Grand Theft Auto III, receiving significant acclaim. The games influenced other open-world games, and led to the label Grand Theft Auto clone on similar titles.[4]
The series has been critically acclaimed, with all the main 3D entries in the franchise frequently ranked among the greatest and best-selling video games;[5] it has shipped almost 470 million units, making it one of the best-selling video game franchises. In 2006, Grand Theft Auto was featured in a list of British design icons in the Great British Design Quest organised by the BBC and the Design Museum.[6] In 2013, The Telegraph ranked Grand Theft Auto among Britain's most successful exports.[7] The series has also been controversial for its adult nature and violent themes, as well as for cut content. It is also one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time.
Series history
Main series
| 1997 | Grand Theft Auto |
|---|---|
| 1998 | |
| 1999 | Grand Theft Auto: London 1969 |
| Grand Theft Auto: London 1961 | |
| Grand Theft Auto 2 | |
| 2000 | |
| 2001 | Grand Theft Auto III |
| 2002 | Grand Theft Auto: Vice City |
| 2003 | |
| 2004 | Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas |
| Grand Theft Auto Advance | |
| 2005 | Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories |
| 2006 | Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories |
| 2007 | |
| 2008 | Grand Theft Auto IV |
| 2009 | Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned |
| Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars | |
| Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony | |
| 2010 | |
| 2011 | |
| 2012 | |
| 2013 | Grand Theft Auto V |
| Grand Theft Auto Online | |
| 2014 | |
| 2015 | |
| 2016 | |
| 2017 | |
| 2018 | |
| 2019 | |
| 2020 | |
| 2021 | |
| 2022 | |
| 2023 | |
| 2024 | |
| 2025 | |
| 2026 | Grand Theft Auto VI |
The Grand Theft Auto series is split into separate fictional universes, named after the primary level of graphics capability used in each era.[8] The original Grand Theft Auto, its expansions and its sequel are considered the "2D universe". Grand Theft Auto III and its sequels are considered the "3D universe". Grand Theft Auto IV, its expansions and Grand Theft Auto V are considered the "HD universe". Each universe is considered separate with only brands, place names and background characters shared between them.[8]
Grand Theft Auto, the first game in the series, was released for MS-DOS and Windows in November 1997, ported to the PlayStation in 1998 and the Game Boy Color in 1999. Grand Theft Auto 2 was released in 1999 for Windows, later receiving ports on the PlayStation, Dreamcast and Game Boy Color.[9] The PlayStation 2 featured three main Grand Theft Auto instalments released as timed exclusives under a deal between Take-Two Interactive and Sony Computer Entertainment, before being ported to Windows and Xbox.[10] The 2001 title Grand Theft Auto III moved away from the two-dimension (2D) graphics used in the first two games to three-dimension (3D) computer graphics[11] Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was published in 2002, and was the first to feature a speaking protagonist, voiced by Ray Liotta.[12] Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, released in 2004, introduced various new elements, including character customisation and a large map encompassing three cities and surrounding rural area.[13]
Two main instalments were published for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The 2008 title Grand Theft Auto IV focused on realism and detail, removing various customisation features, while adding an online multiplayer mode.[14] Grand Theft Auto V, published in 2013, featured three playable protagonists.[15] It was released to massive financial success, breaking multiple records.[16] It was later re-released with various enhancements, in 2014 for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and in 2015 for Windows;[17] versions for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S were released in 2022.[18]
On 4 February 2022, Rockstar confirmed that development of a new entry in the series was "well underway".[19] In-development footage of the game leaked in September 2022;[20][21] Rockstar noted that it was "extremely disappointed" by the manner in which the game was first demonstrated, but that it did not anticipate long-term effects on development.[22] In December 2023, the game was officially announced as Grand Theft Auto VI, with a projected release date of 2025 for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.[23] It was later delayed to 19 November 2026.[24]
Other games
Grand Theft Auto has spawned numerous additional games and expansion packs. In 1999, the original game received two expansion packs: Grand Theft Auto: London 1969 and Grand Theft Auto: London 1961, which, as their names suggest, featured a different setting – a fictional version of London – and new missions and characters.[9] Grand Theft Auto Advance, released in 2004 exclusively for the Game Boy Advance, featured a top-down perspective, similarly to the first two main games in the series, and the same setting as Grand Theft Auto III, to which it served as a prequel. Three games were released for the PlayStation Portable: Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories in 2005, which is also a prequel to Grand Theft Auto III; Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories in 2006, which is a prequel to Vice City; and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars in 2009, which features the same setting as Grand Theft Auto IV, but the two games are otherwise unrelated. Both Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories were later ported to the PlayStation 2, while Chinatown Wars was originally released for the Nintendo DS and later ported to PlayStation Portable.[25]
In 2009, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony were released for the Xbox 360 as expansion packs to Grand Theft Auto IV; a "strategic alliance" between Rockstar and Microsoft resulted in the timed exclusivity. The expansions focus on characters who played a relatively minor role in the main game, and whose stories take place simultaneously with Grand Theft Auto IV's. Both were later released for the PlayStation 3 and Windows as part of a compilation, titled Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City, also available on Xbox 360.[26]
Numerous titles in the series have received ports to mobile devices. Chinatown Wars was released for iOS in 2010 and for Android and Fire OS in 2014.[27] For their tenth anniversaries, Grand Theft Auto III and Vice City were both re-released for iOS and Android in 2011 and 2012, respectively.[28][29] In 2013, San Andreas was ported to iOS, Android and Windows Phone and RT;[30] the mobile port was later re-released for Xbox 360 in 2014, the year of the game's tenth anniversary,[31] and the following year for PlayStation 3.[32] In 2015, Liberty City Stories was ported to iOS, Android and Fire OS.[33][34]
Compilations
Grand Theft Auto Double Pack was released in 2003 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, and includes both Grand Theft Auto III and Vice City.[35] Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy is a compilation of III, Vice City, and San Andreas, and was first released in 2005 for the Xbox.[36] It was later re-released for the PlayStation 2, Windows, Mac OS X, and PlayStation 4.[37][38][39][40] The Trilogy also served as the revised package for San Andreas, which had to be pulled from shelves due to the controversial Hot Coffee mod.[41] A report in August 2021 suggested that Rockstar Dundee was leading development on a remastered version of the trilogy, using Unreal Engine;[42] following some leaks,[43][44][45] Rockstar officially announced Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition on 8 October 2021. The game features graphical and gameplay upgrades, and replaced existing versions on digital retailers. It was released for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on 11 November 2021,[46] and for Android and iOS on 14 December 2023.[47]
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City is a standalone compilation of the two episodes for Grand Theft Auto IV. It contains both The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony on one disc. It was released on 29 October 2009 for the Xbox 360 and on 13 April 2010 for PlayStation 3 and Windows. Microsoft added Episodes from Liberty City to its backwards compatibility list for Xbox One platforms in February 2017.[48] The standalone release of Episodes from Liberty City for Windows was discontinued and replaced by a single-player-only version of Grand Theft Auto IV: Complete Edition in 2020.[49]
List of games
| Year | Title | Developer | Platform(s) | Universe[8] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home console | Computer | Handheld | Mobile | |||||
| Main series | ||||||||
| 1997 | Grand Theft Auto | DMA Design | PS1 | GBC | 2D | |||
| 1999 | Grand Theft Auto 2 |
|
Windows | GBC | ||||
| 2001 | Grand Theft Auto III |
|
3D | |||||
| 2002 | Grand Theft Auto: Vice City | Rockstar North |
|
|
| |||
| 2004 | Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas |
|
| |||||
| 2008 | Grand Theft Auto IV |
|
Windows | HD | ||||
| 2013 | Grand Theft Auto V |
|
Windows | |||||
| 2026 | Grand Theft Auto VI | Rockstar Games |
|
TBA | ||||
| Expansion packs | ||||||||
| 1999 | Grand Theft Auto: London 1969 | Rockstar Canada | PS1 |
|
2D | |||
| Grand Theft Auto: London 1961 |
|
|||||||
| 2009 | Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned | Rockstar North |
|
Windows | HD | |||
| Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony |
|
Windows | ||||||
| Handheld games | ||||||||
| 2004 | Grand Theft Auto Advance | Digital Eclipse | GBA | 3D | ||||
| 2005 | Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories | Rockstar Leeds | PS2 | PSP |
| |||
| 2006 | Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories | PS2 | PSP | |||||
| 2009 | Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars |
|
|
HD | ||||
| Compilations and remasters | ||||||||
| 1999 | Grand Theft Auto: Director's Cut[C] | DMA Design / Rockstar Canada |
|
|
2D | |||
| 2003 | Grand Theft Auto: The Classics Collection[D] |
|
|
|||||
| Grand Theft Auto: Double Pack[E] | Rockstar North |
|
3D | |||||
| 2005 | Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy[F] |
|
|
|||||
| 2009 | Grand Theft Auto: Double Pack[G] | Rockstar Leeds |
|
PSP | ||||
| Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City[H] | Rockstar North |
|
Windows | HD | ||||
| 2010 | Grand Theft Auto IV: Complete Edition[I] |
|
Windows | |||||
| 2021 | Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition[J] | Grove Street Games / Video Games Deluxe |
Windows | Switch[K] |
|
3D | ||
Notes:
| ||||||||
Related media
The series has been expanded into various other formats. Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto, a book written by David Kushner chronicling the development of the series, was published in 2012.[51] In March 2015, BBC Two announced The Gamechangers, a 90-minute docudrama based on the creation of Grand Theft Auto.[52] Directed by Owen Harris and written by James Wood, the drama stars Daniel Radcliffe as Rockstar president Sam Houser and Bill Paxton as disbarred attorney Jack Thompson.[53] In May 2015, Rockstar filed a lawsuit against the BBC for trademark infringement, stating that they had no involvement with the development of the film and had unsuccessfully tried to contact the BBC to resolve the matter.[54] It first aired on 15 September 2015 on BBC Two.[55]
In 2006, McFarland & Company published The Meaning and Culture of Grand Theft Auto.[56] Compiled by Nate Garrelts, the 264-page book is a collection of essays regarding the Grand Theft Auto series, to help audiences better understand the games and to make a point about due diligence of game criticism. The book is divided into two parts: the first part discusses the controversies surrounding the series, while the second half takes a theoretical look at the games absent of the controversy.[57]
Roger Corman, who produced the unrelated 1977 film Grand Theft Auto, claimed that any attempted film adaptation of the video game series was unable to proceed. In 2017, he claimed that he sued the "video game manufacturer who flat-out stole the idea", and that they "settled out of court and they gave me some money".[58] He said that he retains the rights, "but the way it was actually written in the contract is a little bit cloudy", and that his lawyers were analysing the contract to ensure that he can remake the film.[58] Take-Two Interactive responded to Corman's claims, noting that the company "owns all rights for films related to the Grand Theft Auto video game series", and that it "can and will take appropriate legal action against anyone attempting to misuse our intellectual property by attempting to make a new film titled Grand Theft Auto";[58] it claimed to have successfully taken legal action against similar attempts in the past.[58]
Common elements
Gameplay
Each game in this series allows the player to take on the role of a criminal in the big city, typically an individual who ends up rising through the ranks of organised crime through the course of the game. The player is given various missions by kingpins and major idols in the city underworld which must be completed to progress through the storyline. Assassinations and other violent crimes are featured regularly. Occasionally, taxi driving, firefighting, street racing, bus driving, or learning to fly helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft are also involved in the game. In later titles, notably those released after Grand Theft Auto 2, the player is given a more developed storyline in which they are forced to overcome an unfortunate event (e.g., being betrayed and left for dead), which serves as motivation for the character to advance up the criminal ladder and ultimately leads to the triumph of the character by the end of the storyline.
The Grand Theft Auto series belongs to a genre of free-roaming role-playing video games called open world games, and grants a large amount of freedom to the player. Traditional action games are structured as a single track series of levels with linear gameplay, but in Grand Theft Auto the player can determine the missions that they want to undertake, and their relationship with various characters are changed based on these choices. Influenced by the earlier game Turbo Esprit,[59][60] the cities of the games can be roamed freely at any point in the game, and are examples of open world video game environments which offer accessible buildings with minor missions in addition to the main storyline. There are exceptions: missions follow a linear, overarching plot. These missions are required to complete in order to unlock new areas in the game.
Grand Theft Auto III and subsequent games have more voice acting and radio stations, which simulate driving to music with disc jockeys, radio personalities, commercials, talk radio, popular music, and American culture. The use of vehicles in an explorable urban environment provides a basic simulation of a working city, complete with pedestrians who generally obey traffic signals. Further details are used to flesh out an open-ended atmosphere that has been used in several other games, such as The Simpsons: Hit & Run, which has less emphasis on crime or violence, and Lego City Undercover, which reverses the roles of police officer and criminal, although the player goes undercover in gangs for a portion of the game.
Criminal activities in Grand Theft Auto games do not go unnoticed by the police. As the player engages in these in-game illegal activities, they may gain a "wanted level", represented by a maximum of five or six stars. A small crime, such as running over a non-player character, may create a one star wanted level situation, while shooting an officer may earn more stars. As the number of stars increase, the amount and strength of the response will increase; a single star might have a few police cars chase after the player, while at 5 or 6 stars, tanks and attack helicopters will chase down the player. Many in-game missions will automatically give the player a wanted level after completing a certain event which they must then get rid of before the mission is complete. Often, trying to keep away from the police while wanted will cause the player to gain even higher wanted levels. The player can remove their character's wanted level by avoiding detection or spending in-game money at specific locations to elude the police (such as a mod shop to repaint their car). Alternatively, if the player-character dies, they will respawn at a hospital and the wanted level will be removed, though the player may lose money, guns, and other benefits they had before being chased. The "wanted level" gameplay concept has become common in similar open world games.
Setting
Most Grand Theft Auto games are set in fictional parodies of well-known United States cities, in a number of different time periods. The games are split into three different universes (2D, 3D, and HD), each with their own reinterpretations of previously established settings. The universes share the names of cities, several brands, and background characters who never make physical appearances in the games (with a few exceptions), but are otherwise considered to be separate continuities.[8]
Liberty City
.jpg)
Liberty City, based on New York City, is one of the three original cities introduced in Grand Theft Auto. It is the first setting available to the player. The city encompasses two landmasses (a large one in the southeast and a smaller one in the northeast) and a Manhattan-like central island; two smaller islands are featured along the river that separates the three main islands. The setting also incorporates the neighbouring state of New Guernsey (a parody of New Jersey), which occupies the northwest portion of the map. All four major islands are divided into multiple districts, inspired by New York and New Jersey's boroughs.
A redesigned version of Liberty City was introduced in Grand Theft Auto III (set in 2001). This iteration is only loosely based on New York, and incorporates elements from other US cities, such as Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, and Detroit.[61] The city encompasses three main islands, which are gradually unlocked as the game's storyline progresses: Portland (based on the industrial areas of Brooklyn and Queens, with additional elements from Manhattan and Long Island), Staunton Island (based mostly on Manhattan), and Shoreside Vale (loosely based on North Jersey, The Bronx, Staten Island, and Upstate New York). The islands are connected by road bridges and an underground tunnel system. A tunnel leading out of Liberty City can be found in Shoreside Vale, but it is impassable by the player. This particular version of Liberty City returned in the prequels Grand Theft Auto Advance (set in 2000) and Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (set in 1998), albeit with several changes to reflect the different time periods. The city was also mentioned in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and was the setting of a mission in the latter.
A third version of Liberty City was featured in Grand Theft Auto IV, its expansion packs The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony (all three set in 2008), and the handheld game Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (set in 2009). This iteration closely resembles New York, and consists of four main boroughs, which become available to explore as the story progresses: Broker (based on Brooklyn), Dukes (Queens), Bohan (The Bronx), and Algonquin (Manhattan).[62] The placement of these boroughs mirrors that of their real-life counterparts: Broker and Dukes occupy a large landmass in the southeast, while Bohan forms its own, smaller island in the northeast, and Algonquin acts as the city's central island. The setting also incorporates three smaller islands—Charge Island (Randall's Island), Colony Island (Roosevelt Island), and Happiness Island (Liberty Island)—and a fourth landmass, Alderney, which is located west of Algonquin and regarded as its own independent state (similarly to New Jersey). Alderney is absent in Chinatown Wars.[63] All islands, barring Happiness Island, are connected by road bridges, underground tunnels, and a subway system; none of which lead out of the city.
San Andreas
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.jpg)
San Andreas, based on San Francisco, is one of the three original cities introduced in Grand Theft Auto. It is the second setting available to the player. The locale encompasses two landmasses: a large northern portion, which is divided into fifteen districts and generally considered to be the city's core, and a smaller island in the southeast, consisting of only one district, which acts as the city's docks area. The northern landmass is further divided by Aye Valley, which cuts through the heart of the area from the east to the west.
A reimagined version of San Andreas was featured in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (set in 1992), as a state rather than a city. Based on California and Nevada, the state encompasses two landmasses, separated by a river and surrounded by a large body of water. The southern portion of the map features the cities of Los Santos (based on Los Angeles) and San Fierro (San Francisco), separated by vast forest and mountain areas. By contrast, the northern portion is one large desert region and incorporates only one city, Las Venturas (Las Vegas). Both landmasses feature additional rural settlements, which are less inhabited than the three major cities. The cities are connected by a train track system, and each one features an airport, which can be used to fast travel from a city to another. At the beginning of the game, players only have access to Los Santos, with the rest of the map being gradually unlocked as the story progresses.
A third version of San Andreas appeared in Grand Theft Auto V (set in 2013), again imagined as a state. The game features only the southern portion of the state, which is depicted as a large island. The southern portion of the island is occupied mostly by the city of Los Santos (which resembles Los Angeles much more closely than its San Andreas counterpart), while the northern portion, known as Blaine County, is less inhabited, featuring vast areas of desert, forest, and mountain, and only a few small towns.[64] This version of San Andreas is currently the only setting in the series that does not feature any map limitations, allowing players to explore the entire island at the beginning of the game. Los Angeles was extensively researched for Grand Theft Auto V. The team organised field research trips with tour guides and architectural historians and captured around 250,000 photos and hours of video footage during these visits.[65] Since the release of the game, hundreds of in-game buildings have been identified as being based on real-world landmarks.[66] The New Yorker's Sam Sweet notes that, with sales of the game reaching thirteen million copies, "there will be more people living in the imaginary state of Los Santos than in the real city on which it was modelled."[67]
Vice City
Vice City, based on Miami, is one of the three original cities introduced in Grand Theft Auto. It is the third setting available to the player. The city encompasses one large landmass, divided into eight districts which form the city's core, and a smaller island, Vice Beach, in the northeast. Like its real-life counterpart, Vice City is depicted as a tropical city, easily distinguished from the other two in the game by its beaches and palm trees.
A redesigned version of Vice City, located in the state of Florida, was introduced in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (set in 1986). The city consists of two main landmasses, Vice City Beach and Vice City Mainland, separated by a large body of water and connected to each other and to two smaller islands, Starfish Island and Prawn Island, by a series of road bridges. At the beginning of the game, the player only has access to Vice City Beach, with the rest of the city being gradually unlocked as the story progresses. The same setting would be later used in the prequel Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (set in 1984), albeit with several changes to reflect the earlier time period.
A third version of Vice City will be featured as a main setting of the upcoming