Welcome to I Am Your Target Demographic and today we’re discussing the history of the
video game franchise Grand Theft Auto.
It all began in 1997 when the first Grand Theft Auto was released on PC and later brought
to the Playstation.
It was named after the crime of stealing someone’s car, in the United States called Grand Theft Auto.
In this original game, you played from a topdown perspective and stole cars in order to complete objectives.
It was condemned for its violence in a few countries, including the UK and France and
was even banned outright in Brazil.
It was published by Rockstar Games, who still make the games today.
The second Grand Theft Auto didn’t shake things up too much, revisiting the top down approach.
In fact, it didn’t really change anything and its mediocre scores were due to so much of the same.
It was time to revisit what works and innovate.
In 2001, Grand Theft Auto 3 launched on Playstation 2 and Xbox and marked a new era for the franchise,
as this game featured a completely 3D open world, something commonplace today.
You can freely roam the fictional location of Liberty City and do anything you’d like.
It had the same violence as the past two games and was called reprehensible for allowing
you to take out civilians in all sorts of ways.
It also featured prostitutes in the game and these sections were removed in the game in
several countries, as it couldn’t be released with that content.
This marked a significant moment in the debate of gun violence as caused by videogames, though
any actual lawsuits against this game or its makers were dismissed on first amendment rights.
This game launched an era of games called “sandbox games,” that allowed you to travel
a completely open world and pretty much do anything you’d like.
Franchises such as Saints Row and Crackdown followed, popularizing these mechanics first
found in GTA3.
At this point, Grand Theft Auto also became known for its standalone sequels, with one
of the most notable ones being Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, which takes us back to a
1980s fictional rendition of Miami.
The star of this game was the soundtrack, featuring an incredible array of 1980s music
to listen to as you attempted crazy jumps and drove wild through the city.
Though built with the framework of GTA3, Vice City itself is considered one of the best
video games of all time by many people.
Rockstar Games replicated this formula again for a spinoff called GTA: San Andreas which
brought us to a Southern California location this time.
The city would be featured again later in Grand Theft Auto 5.
In 2008, we got the next actual sequel, Grand Theft Auto 4 for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.
It took place in Liberty City once again, a stand-in for New York City.
This game also received wild acclaim, with a Metacritic score of 98 out of 100.
It received many “Game of the Year” awards and is one of the best reviewed games of all time.
It did come under fire from the group Mothers Against Drunk Driving for making a mini-game out of driving drunk.
They believed the game should be reclassified from M, which stands for Mature, to AO, which means Adults Only.
The spinoff games for GTA4 did not allow you to drive drunk, though this feature returned in GTA 5.
Let’s cut ahead to GTA 5 now.
You’d think that Rockstar’s monumental success would have slowed after GTA 3 and
4 but somehow, that isn’t the case.
Grand Theft Auto 5 was released in 2013 for PS3 and Xbox 360, then later for PS4 and Xbox One.
In 2017, five years after its release, Grand Theft Auto 5 was still in the top 10 best
selling games of the year.
I’m recording this in early 2018 and I looked at the January 2018 best sellers and it’s number 5.
It’s estimated to have sold over 90 million copies.
In only six weeks, it exceeded the lifetime sales of its predecessor GTA 4.
Its review scores were also phenomenally high as well.
How does GTA 5 have this sort of lifespan, you’re thinking.
What could keep a game fresh and new for five years or more.
This is where we discuss the online component, which was introduced in GTA 4 but the iteration
in Grand Theft Auto 5 is absolutely incredible.
You can exist in this world with other players from around the world, completing either cooperative
and competitive adventures.
You can even create custom jobs and make this world your own, inviting others into it.
There is a currency system in play so that you have to move your way up the ladder to
the nicest cars, so showing off your shiny new ride really means something.
Content is still being released to GTA Online, keeping this community actively engaged.
It’s also popular to modify or “mod” GTA 5, especially on PCs and people have been
incredibly creative, changing your character to look like superheroes or creating impossible
racetracks across the sky.
You’re able to share and experience these mods with others, though they’re not sanctioned by Rockstar Games.
It’s safe to say that Rockstar Games have figured out the formula to success, managing
to up their game with each iteration and people are desperately awaiting for the next installment,
though Rockstar is taking time now to develop their wild west game Red Dead Redemption,
that will likely borrow elements from the GTA games that have worked.
What do YOU want from GTA 6?
What should they change or add?
Go down to the comments and get creative.
Thanks for watching!