Grand Theft Auto (series)
The gameplay consists of a mixture of action, adventure, driving, and occasionalrole-playing, stealth, parodying of American current events, and racing elements and has gained controversy for its adult nature and violent themes. The series focuses around many different protagonists who attempt to rise through the ranks of the criminal underworld, although their motives for doing so vary in each game. The antagonists are commonly characters who have betrayed the protagonist or their organization, or who has the most impact impeding their progress."Grand Theft Auto" (commonly abbreviated "GTA") is a video game series created in the UK by Dave Jones, then later by brothers Dan Houser and Sam Houser, and game designer Zachary Clarke and primarily developed byRockstar North (formerly DMA Design) and published by Rockstar Games.
DMA Design began the series in 1997, and it currently has ten stand-alonegames and four expansion packs. Film veterans such as Michael Madsen, Ray Liotta, Burt Reynolds, Dennis Hopper, Gary Busey, Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Penn, James Woods, Joe Pantoliano, Frank Vincent, Robert Loggia, Kyle MacLachlan and Peter Fonda have all voiced major characters in many installments in the series. The name of the series and its games are derived from grand theft auto, a term referring to motor vehicle theft.
Grand Theft Auto
Grand Theft Auto, the first game in the Grand Theft Auto series, was created by British video game developer DMA Design, and was released for Microsoft DOS/Windows in 1997/1998 and also for the PlayStation .[1] The game is set in three different fictional cities, Liberty
Subsequently, two expansion packs were offered, both under the name of Grand Theft Auto: London 1969.
Grand Theft Auto 2
Main article: Grand Theft Auto 2
The second game in the series, Grand Theft Auto 2, was developed for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation, and Dreamcast and released in the year 1999. Set in the indeterminable future,[2] it featured updated graphics and somewhat different gameplay based upon the player's appeal data to various criminal organizations.
A reduced Game Boy Color port was also produced. Unlike the other games of the Grand Theft Auto series, Grand Theft Auto 2 was the only game released in its era of bicentennial gaming. It is also the only Grand Theft Auto game to have a "T" rating for a PlayStation Console, it is also the only sequel to have a digit in the title instead of a Roman numeral.
Grand Theft Auto III
Grand Theft Auto III was released in October 2001, and served as the breakthrough for the franchise.[3] The game's setting takes place around that time,[4] in fictional Liberty City, which is loosely based on New York City, but also incorporates elements of other American cities.[5] Grand Theft Auto III brought a third-person view to the series, rather than the traditional top-down view of earlier titles (although the view is still made available as an optional camera angle). For the first time, the problem of navigating in the huge sandbox game was solved by implementing a constant GPS triggered mini-map that highlights the player's position as well as those of current targets. Graphics were also updated with a new 3D game engine. The gameplay engine expanded the explorable world of GTA III, using a mission-based approach. Multiplayer was discarded (third party mods were later released, allowing for multiplayer gameplay), but GTA III improved in many other areas such as voice-acting and plot (in previous games, there was speech only in short animated cut scenes between levels, while other communication was simply subtitles running on the bottom of the screen).
After the success of Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was released in 2002. This game was set in 1986 in Vice City, which was based on Miami, Florida. The game's plot focuses on the cocaine trade during the 1980s. Vice City was the first game to introduce fully functional flying vehicles that could be used by the player, such as seaplanes and helicopters. It also featured a variety of new weapons and vehicles.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, released in October 2004, is set in 1992, focusing on California gang life and the awakening of the drug epidemic brought on by crack cocaine. The setting was in the fictional state of San Andreas, which was based on some California andNevada cities, specifically Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Las Vegas. Their counterparts are Los Santos, San Fierro, and Las Venturasrespectively. The game also included a countryside in between Los Santos and San Fierro and also between Los Santos and Las Venturas, and a desert in between Las Venturas and San Fierro.
Grand Theft Auto (unofficially referred to as Grand Theft Auto Advance), for the Game Boy Advance, was also released in 2004. Originally developed as a top-down conversion of GTA III, became an original game. Unlike the Game Boy Color ports of Grand Theft Auto and Grand Theft Auto 2, Grand Theft Auto did not tone down the violence and profanity common to the GTA series. The game received an "M" rating from the ESRB. It was developed by an external developer, Digital Eclipse.
In 2005 and 2006, Rockstar released two games for the PlayStation Portable, both developed by Rockstar Leeds. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories is a prequel to Grand Theft Auto III and set in Liberty City in 1998. A PlayStation 2 port was released by Rockstar on 6 June 2006.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories was released for the PlayStation Portable on 31 October 2006 and set in Vice City in 1984, two years before the events of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. A PlayStation 2 port of the game was released on 6 March 2007. It is the last game of the third generation series, and the final game in the Grand Theft Auto III canon.
In in-game chronological order (not the order they were released in) the third generation Grand Theft Auto games are:
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories Set in: 1984 - Released in: 2006
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Set in: 1986 - Released in: 2001 (BETA)2002
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Set in: 1992 - Released in: 2004
- Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories Set in: 1998 - Released in: 2005
- Grand Theft Auto Set in: 2000
- Grand Theft Auto III Set in: 2001 - Released in: 2001
Grand Theft Auto IV
Grand Theft Auto IV was released on 29 April 2008, after a six month delay.[6] It was the first Grand Theft Auto game to be released simultaneously for both Sony and Microsoft's video game consoles. In August 2008, Rockstar announced that it was going to publish GTA IVfor PC. GTA IV's game engine is the Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (also known as RAGE) used in Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis and the Euphoria physics engine. The game once again takes place in a redesigned Liberty City that very closely resembles New York City, much more than previous renditions.[7]
Microsoft officially announced a "strategic alliance" with Rockstar Games over the rights to episodic content through their Xbox Live service at their X06 event. This content was released as Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned on 17 February 2009, and it was available for download, exclusively for the Xbox 360, this was because of the substantial $50 million that Microsoft paid Rockstar to keep it exclusive. The strategic alliance was however timed and both DLC episodes and the compilation pack were released on 13 April 2010 on PS3 and PC.[8]The expansion adds some new elements to the existing game and focuses on Johnny Klebitz, the vice president of "The Lost" motorcycle gang.
The second Grand Theft Auto IV Downloadable Content episode was called Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony [9] and was released on 29 October 2009. Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City is a compilation pack released for the Xbox 360 at the same time as The Ballad of Gay Tony. It contains The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony on one disk and does not require an original copy of GTA IV.
Grand Theft Auto IV reintroduced online multiplayer to the series. In most games, a customizable character is used to play, and money earned in game is translated to levels, with more customization available at higher levels. The game does not offer split screen or LANmultiplayer modes on PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, but there is LAN on the PC mode. Up to 16 (32 on PC) players can play together, doing a variety of games including Death Match, Cops 'n' Crooks, races, Deal Breaker, and Mafiya Work as well as team varieties of Death Match, and Mafiya Work to name just a few.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is the first Grand Theft Auto game to be released on the Nintendo DS, and was announced at the E3Nintendo Press Conference on 15 July 2008. This game has several new features, such as touch screen mini-games. The game was released on 17 March 2009 in North America and 20 March 2009 to Australia and Europe. The game is rated 18+ by PEGI and the BBFC(Europe, UK) and M by the ESRB (North America). A PSP version was later announced on 22 June 2009[10] and was released in North America on 20 October 2009. It was also released on the iPhone OS platform 18 January 2010.
- Grand Theft Auto IV - Set in: 2008, released in 2008
- Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned - Set in 2008, released in 2009 (360)/2010 (PS3, PC)
- Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony - Set in 2008, released in 2009 (360)/2010 (PS3, PC)
- Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars - Set in 2009, released in 2009.
Game Sales Acquired Label(s) Year First Era Grand Theft Auto 1 million PS1 Greatest Hits / Platinum 1997 Grand Theft Auto: London, 1969 N/A None 1999 Grand Theft Auto: London, 1961 N/A None Total Era Sales = 1 million+ Second Era Grand Theft Auto 2 2 million PS1 Greatest Hits 1999 Total Era Sales = 2 million Third Era Grand Theft Auto III 15 million PS2 Greatest Hits / Platinum 2001 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City 17.5 million PS2 Greatest Hits / Platinum 2002 Grand Theft Auto Advance 100,000 None 2004 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 22.50 million PS2 Greatest Hits / Platinum, Xbox Platinum Hits Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories 10 million PSP Greatest Hits / Platinum, PS2 Platinum 2005 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories 5 million PSP Greatest Hits / Platinum, PS2 Platinum 2006 Total Era Sales = 93.1 million Fourth Era Grand Theft Auto IV 17.10 million[47] PS3 Greatest Hits / Platinum, Xbox 360 Platinum Hits 2008 Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned 323,000+[48] N/A 2009 Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars 200,000[49] None Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony N/A Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City N/A Total Era Sales so far = 25.4 million+ Total Grand Theft Auto series sales = 120 million+
Grand Theft Auto, the first game in the Grand Theft Auto series, was created by British video game developer DMA Design, and was released for Microsoft DOS/Windows in 1997/1998 and also for the PlayStation .[1] The game is set in three different fictional cities, Liberty
Subsequently, two expansion packs were offered, both under the name of Grand Theft Auto: London 1969.
Main article: Grand Theft Auto 2
The second game in the series, Grand Theft Auto 2, was developed for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation, and Dreamcast and released in the year 1999. Set in the indeterminable future,[2] it featured updated graphics and somewhat different gameplay based upon the player's appeal data to various criminal organizations.
A reduced Game Boy Color port was also produced. Unlike the other games of the Grand Theft Auto series, Grand Theft Auto 2 was the only game released in its era of bicentennial gaming. It is also the only Grand Theft Auto game to have a "T" rating for a PlayStation Console, it is also the only sequel to have a digit in the title instead of a Roman numeral.
Grand Theft Auto III was released in October 2001, and served as the breakthrough for the franchise.[3] The game's setting takes place around that time,[4] in fictional Liberty City, which is loosely based on New York City, but also incorporates elements of other American cities.[5] Grand Theft Auto III brought a third-person view to the series, rather than the traditional top-down view of earlier titles (although the view is still made available as an optional camera angle). For the first time, the problem of navigating in the huge sandbox game was solved by implementing a constant GPS triggered mini-map that highlights the player's position as well as those of current targets. Graphics were also updated with a new 3D game engine. The gameplay engine expanded the explorable world of GTA III, using a mission-based approach. Multiplayer was discarded (third party mods were later released, allowing for multiplayer gameplay), but GTA III improved in many other areas such as voice-acting and plot (in previous games, there was speech only in short animated cut scenes between levels, while other communication was simply subtitles running on the bottom of the screen).
After the success of Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was released in 2002. This game was set in 1986 in Vice City, which was based on Miami, Florida. The game's plot focuses on the cocaine trade during the 1980s. Vice City was the first game to introduce fully functional flying vehicles that could be used by the player, such as seaplanes and helicopters. It also featured a variety of new weapons and vehicles.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, released in October 2004, is set in 1992, focusing on California gang life and the awakening of the drug epidemic brought on by crack cocaine. The setting was in the fictional state of San Andreas, which was based on some California andNevada cities, specifically Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Las Vegas. Their counterparts are Los Santos, San Fierro, and Las Venturasrespectively. The game also included a countryside in between Los Santos and San Fierro and also between Los Santos and Las Venturas, and a desert in between Las Venturas and San Fierro.
Grand Theft Auto (unofficially referred to as Grand Theft Auto Advance), for the Game Boy Advance, was also released in 2004. Originally developed as a top-down conversion of GTA III, became an original game. Unlike the Game Boy Color ports of Grand Theft Auto and Grand Theft Auto 2, Grand Theft Auto did not tone down the violence and profanity common to the GTA series. The game received an "M" rating from the ESRB. It was developed by an external developer, Digital Eclipse.
In 2005 and 2006, Rockstar released two games for the PlayStation Portable, both developed by Rockstar Leeds. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories is a prequel to Grand Theft Auto III and set in Liberty City in 1998. A PlayStation 2 port was released by Rockstar on 6 June 2006.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories was released for the PlayStation Portable on 31 October 2006 and set in Vice City in 1984, two years before the events of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. A PlayStation 2 port of the game was released on 6 March 2007. It is the last game of the third generation series, and the final game in the Grand Theft Auto III canon.
In in-game chronological order (not the order they were released in) the third generation Grand Theft Auto games are:
Grand Theft Auto IV
Grand Theft Auto IV was released on 29 April 2008, after a six month delay.[6] It was the first Grand Theft Auto game to be released simultaneously for both Sony and Microsoft's video game consoles. In August 2008, Rockstar announced that it was going to publish GTA IVfor PC. GTA IV's game engine is the Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (also known as RAGE) used in Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis and the Euphoria physics engine. The game once again takes place in a redesigned Liberty City that very closely resembles New York City, much more than previous renditions.[7]
Microsoft officially announced a "strategic alliance" with Rockstar Games over the rights to episodic content through their Xbox Live service at their X06 event. This content was released as Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned on 17 February 2009, and it was available for download, exclusively for the Xbox 360, this was because of the substantial $50 million that Microsoft paid Rockstar to keep it exclusive. The strategic alliance was however timed and both DLC episodes and the compilation pack were released on 13 April 2010 on PS3 and PC.[8]The expansion adds some new elements to the existing game and focuses on Johnny Klebitz, the vice president of "The Lost" motorcycle gang.
The second Grand Theft Auto IV Downloadable Content episode was called Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony [9] and was released on 29 October 2009. Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City is a compilation pack released for the Xbox 360 at the same time as The Ballad of Gay Tony. It contains The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony on one disk and does not require an original copy of GTA IV.
Grand Theft Auto IV reintroduced online multiplayer to the series. In most games, a customizable character is used to play, and money earned in game is translated to levels, with more customization available at higher levels. The game does not offer split screen or LANmultiplayer modes on PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, but there is LAN on the PC mode. Up to 16 (32 on PC) players can play together, doing a variety of games including Death Match, Cops 'n' Crooks, races, Deal Breaker, and Mafiya Work as well as team varieties of Death Match, and Mafiya Work to name just a few.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is the first Grand Theft Auto game to be released on the Nintendo DS, and was announced at the E3Nintendo Press Conference on 15 July 2008. This game has several new features, such as touch screen mini-games. The game was released on 17 March 2009 in North America and 20 March 2009 to Australia and Europe. The game is rated 18+ by PEGI and the BBFC(Europe, UK) and M by the ESRB (North America). A PSP version was later announced on 22 June 2009[10] and was released in North America on 20 October 2009. It was also released on the iPhone OS platform 18 January 2010.
- Grand Theft Auto IV - Set in: 2008, released in 2008
- Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned - Set in 2008, released in 2009 (360)/2010 (PS3, PC)
- Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony - Set in 2008, released in 2009 (360)/2010 (PS3, PC)
- Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars - Set in 2009, released in 2009.
| Game | Sales | Acquired Label(s) | Year | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First Era | |||||
| Grand Theft Auto | 1 million | PS1 Greatest Hits / Platinum | 1997 | ||
| Grand Theft Auto: London, 1969 | N/A | None | 1999 | ||
| Grand Theft Auto: London, 1961 | N/A | None | |||
| Total Era Sales = 1 million+ | |||||
| Second Era | |||||
| Grand Theft Auto 2 | 2 million | PS1 Greatest Hits | 1999 | ||
| Total Era Sales = 2 million | |||||
| Third Era | |||||
| Grand Theft Auto III | 15 million | PS2 Greatest Hits / Platinum | 2001 | ||
| Grand Theft Auto: Vice City | 17.5 million | PS2 Greatest Hits / Platinum | 2002 | ||
| Grand Theft Auto Advance | 100,000 | None | 2004 | ||
| Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas | 22.50 million | PS2 Greatest Hits / Platinum, Xbox Platinum Hits | |||
| Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories | 10 million | PSP Greatest Hits / Platinum, PS2 Platinum | 2005 | ||
| Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories | 5 million | PSP Greatest Hits / Platinum, PS2 Platinum | 2006 | ||
| Total Era Sales = 93.1 million | |||||
| Fourth Era | |||||
| Grand Theft Auto IV | 17.10 million[47] | PS3 Greatest Hits / Platinum, Xbox 360 Platinum Hits | 2008 | ||
| Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned | 323,000+[48] | N/A | 2009 | ||
| Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars | 200,000[49] | None | |||
| Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony | N/A | ||||
| Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City | N/A | ||||
| Total Era Sales so far = 25.4 million+ | |||||
| Total Grand Theft Auto series sales = 120 million+ | |||||
