Interested in this game? Click on the banner to visit the Grand Theft Auto community for more information!
Grand Theft Auto (GTA) is a long-running series of video games, published by Rockstar Games and developed by subsidiary companies. The first games were developed by Rockstar North (formerly DMA Design) and BMG Interactive (a subsidiary of BMG Records).
There are currently sixteen games in the series, plus two expansion packs for the original and two expansions for GTA IV and including a multiplayer title.
There has been much controversy involving the series. The unofficial Hot Coffee mod and subsequent uproar gave Rockstar Games a huge amount of press attention.
Grand Theft Auto currently holds 10 world gaming records, including the Most Guest Stars in a Video Game Series, Largest Voice Cast in a Video Game (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas), Largest In-Game Soundtrack (Grand Theft Auto IV), and Most Successful Entertainment Launch Of All Time (Grand Theft Auto V). The Grand Theft Auto series are also ranked 6 in the best-selling video game franchises of all time.
Overview[]
The games allow the player to take on the role of a criminal in a big city, typically an individual who rises through the ranks of organised crime through the course of the game. Various missions are set for completion by the figureheads of the city underworld, generally criminal, which must be completed to progress through the storyline. Assassinations, and other crimes feature regularly, but occasionally taxi driving, firefighting, pimping, street racing, or learning to fly fixed-wing aircraft are also involved as alternate adventures, which can be done at any time during the game, with the exception of the periods performing main missions.
The Grand Theft Auto series, belonging to a genre of free-roaming video games called "sandbox games," grants a large amount of freedom to the player in deciding what to do and how to do it through multiple methods of transport and weapons. Unlike most traditional action games, which are structured as a single track series of levels with linear gameplay, in GTA the player can determine the missions they want to undertake, and their relationships with various characters are changed based on these choices. The cities of the games can also be roamed freely at any point in the game, offering many accessible buildings and minor missions. There are exceptions: missions follow a linear, overarching plot, and some city areas must be unlocked over the course of the game. Although you can explore the entire city or state even it is locked (but there are limited time to explore some city because some may trigger a 4-wanted level or 6-wanted level) and ignore the missions.
Main Games[]
| Game | Universe | Year | Set In | Protagonist(s) | Platform(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Theft Auto 1 | 2D | 1997 | 1997 | Player's choice]] | PC, PlayStation, Game Boy Color |
| Grand Theft Auto 2 | 2D | 1999 | Three weeks ahead of the current time |
Claude Speed |
PC, PlayStation, Dreamcast, Game Boy Color |
| Grand Theft Auto III | 3D | 2001 | 2001 | Claude | PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox, iOS devices, Android devices |
| Grand Theft Auto IV | HD | 2008 | 2008 | Niko Bellic | PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 |
| Grand Theft Auto V | HD | 2013 | 2013 | Michael De Santa Franklin Clinton Trevor Philips |
PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PC, Xbox One |
Other games[]
| Game | Universe | Year | Set In | Protagonist(s) | Platform(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Theft Auto: London 1969 | 2D | 1999 | 1969 | Player's choice | PC, PlayStation |
| Grand Theft Auto: London 1961 | 2D | 1999 | 1961 | Player's choice | PC |
| Grand Theft Auto: Vice City | 3D | 2002 | 1986 | Tommy Vercetti | PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox, iOS devices, Android devices |
| Grand Theft Auto Advance | 3D | 2004 | 2000 | Mike | Game Boy Advance |
| Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas | 3D | 2004 | 1992 | Carl Johnson | PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, iOS devices, Android devices |
| Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories | 3D | 2005 | 1998 | Toni Cipriani | PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable |
| Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories | 3D | 2006 | 1984 | Victor Vance | PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable |
| Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned | HD | 2009 | 2008 | Johnny Klebitz | PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 |
| Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony | HD | 2009 | 2008 | Luis Fernando Lopez | PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 |
| Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars | HD | 2010 | 2009 | Huang Lee | Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, iOS devices, Android, Kindle Fire |
| Grand Theft Auto Online | HD | 2013 | 2013 | GTA Online Protagonist | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC |
Individual games in the series can be categorized into different "universes", which mostly depend on the storyline and the graphics engine used. The start of a new "universe" is indicated by the graphics used in the game.
The Fan Base[]
Grand Theft Auto has one of the largest fan bases of any game franchise. There are many unofficial Fansites about GTA games, providing the latest news, download databases, and often an online forum for the GTA community. Thousands of GTA fansites exist, ranging from small one-person news blogs to community-edited wikis (like this one) to massive downloads databases to forums with hundreds of thousands of members.
An activity popular with fans is modding - creating new vehicle models, skins, re-texturing of objects, and tweaking settings in the games' configuration files. These modifications are made freely available on fansites for anyone to download and install into their game. Another popular pastime (since GTA III) is stunting - the act of performing wild stunts with vehicles, which are produced into compilation videos.
Another activity popular with members of the community is writing Fan Fiction - stories based on events which follow on from, or are based around events which happen in the games, but these are not to be considered canon.
These are a list of some of the most popular fan sites:
- GTA Legende.com
- The GTA Place
- GTA Net
- GTA 5 Mods & Scripts
- Planet GTA
- GTA Warehouse
- GTA Gaming
- GTA-SanAndreas
- Gouranga
- RockstarWatch.net
- GTA V.Net
- GTA 5 Mods
Media[]
Images[]
Videos[]
Trivia[]
- Every GTA features an entry screen showing different artworks from the game, while the game loads.
- Every GTA cover since GTA III (except for Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars and Grand Theft Auto: Advance) features a helicopter on the top left corner of the cover art.
- Grand Theft Auto is the best selling Sandbox/Open World game series of all time.
- The GTA series has sold over 150 million copies on all platforms.
- GTA V was the fastest selling and most profitable entertainment product in history, making over $1 billion in just 3 days after its release.