When one thinks of Grand Theft Auto, they think of the amazing gameplay, immersive worlds, well-crafted storylines, the litany of vehicles and weapons available for players, and no doubt many incredible memories of cruising streets from Los Santos to Liberty City.
At least, that's if you've actually played the games.
For those of you who haven't, the first things that may come to mind are the controversies. The torture scenes, the "Hot Coffee" scandal, the violence, the crime - though what did they expect from a series literally named after a crime?
It's true the series has been surrounded by controversy throughout its history. It is also true that it is one of the most popular and successful video game franchises in history, with Grand Theft Auto V alone being one of the highest-selling video games of all time - not to mention being highly critically acclaimed.
And with Grand Theft Auto VI announced and set for a 2025 release, this franchise can expect to rake in even more profit and praise in the future.
But what is the history of this franchise? What makes Grand Theft Auto such a beloved and controversial series?
Here is everything you need to know.
A crime of fun: The humble origins of GTA
Developed by Scottish developers before being fully taken over by Rockstar Games, the first Grand Theft Auto game released in 1997 for PC before being ported to PlayStation.
The game was simple. A top-down 2D action-adventure game where you play as a criminal of your choice and try to climb through the ranks in the world of crime.
In a world spanning the fictional cities of San Andreas, Vice City, and Liberty City (stand-ins for San Francisco, Miami, and New York City respectively), you commit numerous crimes and acts of violence for a number of criminal organizations as you try to earn money.
This is a far cry from the game's original intent. Given the name Race'n'Chase, originally it would see players play a game between cops and robbers. But most players wanted to play as criminals, so they went with that, and Grand Theft Auto was born.
There was some groundbreaking innovation in the game when it was released, particularly with music and sound effects. However, despite being a financial success, it received mixed reviews for its dated graphics. However, it had also attracted controversy before release due to its violent content.
This is something, however, that was at least in part engineered deliberately by the game's marketing campaign, specifically publicist Max Clifford.
As detailed in a Sunday Times interview with Grand Theft Auto creators Mile Dailly and David Jones, Clifford deliberately leaked details of the game to members of the UK House of Lords and the press in order to specifically spark a response from reactionaries.
This took a game with subpar and dated graphics to new heights.
In 1999, two expansion packs were released for Grand Theft Auto set in London during the 1960s. But later that year, Rockstar Games would release a full sequel: Grand Theft Auto 2.
This game, though, was far from the success of its predecessor. While its soundtrack was still highly praised, the graphics were heavily criticized, as were the gameplay and setting.
Commercially, Grand Theft Auto 2 only made a moderate success. But just two years later, the franchise would explode - and the gaming industry would never be the same.
A new dimension of plot and gameplay: Grand Theft Auto goes 3D
Grand Theft Auto III is one of the most critically praised and influential games of all time, and at the time of its release was one of the best-selling games as well.
Unlike the previous games that were limited to 2D graphics, GTA III was a fully 3D game. This itself wasn't unusual. Many games in the late 1990s and early 2000s were making the jump to 3D, a move that proved successful for some and fatal for others. For GTA III though, calling it a success would be an understatement.
Rockstar combined the new 3D setting with the franchise's open world gameplay to create a large open-world sandbox. Players could go anywhere in a - by the standards of the era - highly detailed city and use a variety of weapons and vehicles. They could be on multiple missions at a time, utilize the world around them through different minigames, have their actions change how NPCs around them act, and even allowed players to shoot weapons out of a car.
More than that was the inclusion of a story. Rather than being barebones and an excuse for gameplay that the previous game was, Grand Theft Auto III would begin something the franchise was known for: It's incredible writing.
The plot was now a full-blown, if not also tongue-in-cheek, crime drama. Players controlled Claude, a small-time crook from Liberty City who, after being betrayed by his Cartel-affiliated girlfriend, begins working with the Mafia and yakuza in multiple gang-wars with the end goal of getting revenge on his ex-girlfriend and the Cartel.
The game was not without detractors. Controversy once again stirred up around the perceived glamorization of crime and with other features, such as allowing Claude to pay prostitutes for sex, and then kill those prostitutes to steal the money back.
On the gameplay front, some critics still took issue with graphics and combat. But other than that, the game was an unprecedented hit, with critics praising the plot, 3D open world, immersive potential, and the soundtrack.
The video game industry has not been the same since Grand Theft Auto III. Over the years, the idea of an open-world sandbox game exploded and began to seemingly dominate the entire gaming industry. The entire idea of an open world with open-ended gameplay, with a vast number of vehicles, weapons, and minigames started with GTA III, and it led to the start of a whole subgenre known as GTA clones.
It didn't technically invent all of this - a few games came before it, though none were as successful. Only after Grand Theft Auto III came out, combining all of its influences together in a refined package, did this style of game truly coalesce and form.
But Rockstar wasn't slowing down. They would continue to innovate even further.
Vice City: Giving a new voice to Grand Theft Auto
Released in 2002, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City further reaped its own critical and commercial success.
Like Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City was lauded for its soundtrack, open-world, and gameplay. The missions themselves were also thought to be an improvement.
But what made Vice City stand out even more was, once again, its plot.
While GTA III had a story, Claude himself was a silent protagonist, a blank slate for the player to use. That didn't happen in Vice City though.
Here, players took control of mobster Tommy Vercetti in 1986. A more fleshed-out character and voiced by award-winning Hollywood actor Ray Liotta, Vercetti is a made man straight out of prison and ends up working his way through Vice City under orders from Mafia boss Sonny Forelli - the same man responsible for his 15-year stint in prison.
As Vercetti, the players end up becoming the Vice City drug kingpin, and essentially followed the journey of Tony Montana of Scarface.
Vercetti's dialogue was a delight, and helped players root for him more than they might have rooted for Claude in the previous game.
Of course, Vice City still faced controversy, as every Grand Theft Auto game has. But it was also still widely regarded as one of the greatest video games ever made at the time.
With that, Grand Theft Auto's 3D games revisited two of the three locations featured in the original game. With Liberty City and Vice City now taken care of, it was time to head west for the next game.
San Andreas: Ah s***, here we go again
San Andreas transformed in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas to become essentially the entire state of California, as well as a bit of Nevada and Arizona.
The overall game world was over four times the size of GTA III and Vice City, with San Andreas having three full fledged cities - Los Santos, a stand-in for Los Angeles; Las Venturas, a stand-in for Las Vegas; and San Fiero, a stand-in for San Francisco - as well as numerous rural areas, smaller towns, military bases, and more.
This game was packed with content, first and foremost being the story.
Set in 1992, players took on the role of Carl "CJ" Johnson, a gangster who, after his mom was killed in a drive-by shooting, returns home to a low-income area of Los Santos after living in Liberty City for several years.
He reconnects with his brother, Sweet, and his old gang, the Grove Street Families, and ends up helping them rebuild following several incursions on their territory by rival gangs and by the heavily corrupt police force, led by Officer Tenpenny.
This journey leads CJ into a journey rife with high action, crime, betrayal, and revenge, in a complex narrative surrounding the truth of his mother's murder.
All of this was made in light of the many scandals and stories that took place in California in the 1990s, such as the street gang warfare between the Bloods and Crips, the crack crisis, racial riots, and LAPD corruption.
The story was tasteful, not glamorizing the criminal lifestyle in favor of telling a deep story. The players were also allowed more customizable features for CJ, such as clothing, appearance, his relationships with other characters, and his habits which determine some of his skills and physical attributes.
Naturally, CJ can also take part in a number of crimes, burglary, murder, pimping, vigilante action, and of course, grand theft auto.
But CJ as a character was widely praised for his depth and growth throughout the story. He felt like a real person, who was nice but also complicated, which made him all the more complex.
Of course, the fact that CJ was a kind person seemed a bit jarring. After all, CJ was far from the type of character who would have enjoyed taking part in intense violence and murder, which is what made the fact that the player character can easily do just that throughout the game somewhat strange.
But this is something that became a hallmark of Grand Theft Auto going forward: Ludonarrative dissonance, or the conflict between a game's narrative and gameplay.
San Andreas also added a lot in terms of gameplay. Territory takeovers are done by attacking enemy turf and defending it for three waves, and then having to regularly go back to those areas to hold it down. Almost 200 unique vehicles are available, as well as a vast number of weapons.
But the huge world also had so much more content in it.
Despite being so big, the world of San Andreas had managed to eliminate dead spaces and fill in so much more. There is always something to explore, and that's without mentioning the numerous mysteries and Easter eggs.
The inclusion of mysteries and Easter eggs started with GTA III and was included a bit in Vice City. However, they began to really take off in San Andreas, which was rife with Easter eggs and myths.
But one of these mysteries stood out above all the others: Bigfoot.
For years, rumors allege that bigfoot existed somewhere in San Andreas. No player has ever found it, and it likely doesn't even exist in the game at all. But it caused players to pay much more attention to the detail surrounding the game. And this would later be expanded upon further in later games.
As always, San Andreas attracted controversy, attention being directed at allegedly glorifying crime and perpetuating racial stereotypes. However, this time, there was a controversy that far overshadowed all the others: The Hot Coffee scandal.
Originally in the game was a minigame dubbed Hot Coffee that, in fact, had nothing to do with coffee, and everything to do with animated sex.
Essentially, this minigame would have allowed players to make CJ have sex with his in-game girlfriend.
The feature was never meant to be playable. What is supposed to happen is that CJ goes to his girlfriend's home with the implication being that they are going to have sex, but the player never actually sees it happening, only hearing muffled sounds implying sex from inside.
But hidden within the game was this minigame. The idea behind it was to give more RPG-like elements to the game and to also push the envelope even more with mature content. Nudity was out of the question, as the game would end up receiving a rating of Adults Only - something that would make it very difficult to sell the game. However, ultimately most of the sex minigame was coded to be non playable in order to not receive the Adults Only rating.
But the minigame was still there, and modders were able to find it and patch it into the game.
The result was a public relations nightmare. San Andreas was given an Adults Only rating and major retailers pulled it from shelves, prompting Rockstar to edit the game and release a version without the minigame accessible.
The response to this went all the way to the halls of Washington. Then-senator Hillary Clinton called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate and pushed for a bill to restrict the sale of certain video games to minors.
While the bill failed, the FTC investigation did not. It ruled that Rockstar and its parent company Take-Two Interactive violated the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914 due to having it still be in the game, even if someone else had to access its files in order to find it.
This also came at the time of another crisis inside Take-Two, which was being investigated for alleged insider trading.
Ultimately, Take-Two suffered losses in the tens of millions from this incident. It also led to a greater fear of modders in the gaming community, with companies trying to make them more resistant to modding. Other games were also placed under heavy scrutiny, and while ultimately Rockstar and the company survived the incident, it remained a black mark on their record.
Overall though, the 3D games were a massive success for Rockstar. However, the company didn't forget GTA's 2D roots.
Getting a handle on handheld: GTA goes portable
The company would release Grand Theft Auto: Advance for the Game Boy Advance at the same time it released San Andreas, the game acting as a prequel to Grand Theft Auto III. However, the game received mixed reviews, limited by the Game Boy Advance's hardware. This meant it lost out on the widely praised dialogue from NPC pedestrians from GTA III.
While the game was the last time GTA would go back to 2D for a while, it was not the last time the franchise would hit handheld consoles.
The next year, Rockstar released Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, another prequel to Grand Theft Auto III.
Released for the Sony PSP, GTA: Liberty City Stories was heavily limited by the console's hardware limitations. However, it was still a sizable 3D game with a compelling narrative.
The game was a big hit, as far as handheld games were concerned, and became the single best-selling PSP game of all time.
This was then followed up the next year with Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, a prequel to Vice City. The game had graphical improvements compared to its predecessor, and while it didn't sell as well, it still was a success and received positive reviews.
But what both PSP games did that really shook up the formula was include multiplayer gameplay, allowing friends to play the game together.
This is something that the franchise had always lacked, though some of their imitators and followers had already followed suit.
Which leads to...
Attack of the clones: Grand Theft Auto's copycat competition
A year after Grand Theft Auto III hit store shelves, the Czech firm Illusion Softworks released Mafia, a GTA clone that tells the story of mafiosos in the 1930s.
While Grand Theft Auto was always tongue-in-cheek, Mafia was a far more serious game, featuring former mobster Tommy Angelo going to the police to testify against the Mob. The game showed the Mafia life in a very negative light, and ultimately ending with Angelo being assassinated by the Mob for his actions. The influence of classic Mafia films like Goodfellas and The Godfather were evident in the game, and that helped it kickstart the trend of GTA clones.
These included the True Crime series, where players played as undercover cops; The Getaway: Black Monday, where players cover a criminal plot from both sides; The Godfather, where you play through the story of The Godfather film; and the Driver series, where you play as a getaway driver or undercover cop, depending on the game.
The list can go on for a while. In fact, it technically even includes a video game created by the terrorist group ISIS. But aside from Mafia, one of these games at this point truly stood out among the rest: Saints Row.
Made by Volition and released in 2006 for the Xbox 360, Saints Row was very similar to Grand Theft Auto. It was certainly fun as it was, though its story was less impressive than what Rockstar released. Critics pointed out that the game wasn't original, in the sense that it was literally a GTA clone. However, it did improve on many aspects of the Grand Theft Auto games.
The graphics were noted to be superior, and the sound design was excellent. Game progression was also tied to the players' own expansion of their game over the game map, and the online multiplayer feature allowed for even more potential with multiple players.
Saints Row was undoubtedly a success and would go on to start its own franchise. Saints Row 2 would be released just two years later, followed by a couple of other successful hits. Notably, the franchise would go on to establish its own distinct identity, truly standing apart from Grand Theft Auto.
But still, the use of online multiplayer was something many fans of Grand Theft Auto were waiting for. But the same year Saints Row 2 was released, Rockstar came out swinging.
Grand Theft Auto IV: Setting a new bar
Grand Theft Auto IV took players back to Liberty City. With one of the biggest budgets ever seen for a video game, expectations were high - and by all accounts, including that of this article's writer, they delivered.
Players took on the role of Niko Bellic, an ex-soldier from somewhere in Eastern Europe who wants to move to the US. He has three goals: Leave his criminal life behind, follow the American Dream, and find the man who betrayed him in a war years prior, resulting in their unit being ambushed.
Niko was led to believe that his cousin, Roman, became highly successful in the US, though this turned out to be far from the truth. Helping Roman with his woes eventually leads Niko to be wrapped up with crime once again. The game also has two endings, though warning: Neither of them are happy ones.
Grand Theft Auto IV's plot was extremely detailed, with a script of over 1,000 pages and tells a grand, gritty, and tragic tale of crime and revenge, while still having plenty of sarcastic satire.
The game world was thoroughly detailed, presenting Liberty City like never before. And learning from San Andreas, Rockstar loaded the place with Easter eggs and hidden details, including the literal giant heart in the city.
Controversy naturally followed this game too, though this time a new controversy was the inclusion of a drunk driving mechanic.
The game's success was also reflected commercially, with GTA IV being the fastest-selling game ever at the time of its release.
Two expansion packs were later released for the game, each of which featured their own narratives interconnected by a diamond sale. The first of these was Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and the Damned. While still set in Liberty City, it was less interactive in that the protagonist, Johnny, can't change his clothing or enter clothing stores.
The plot itself takes place at the same time as GTA IV, featuring the story of a member of a criminal biker club. It was also very positively received and was noted for improved motorcycle mechanics. The storyline and multiplayer aspects were also praised.
However, it also faced controversy, this time for full-frontal male nudity.
The second expansion pack was Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony. It tells the story of Luis Fernando Lopez and his friend, nightclub magnate Gay Tony.
Its gameplay and plot both received praise, and the expansion pack was overall a big success.
Overall, with its highly detailed storyline and extremely deep worldbuilding and open world, Grand Theft Auto IV set a new standard for video games, creating a new bar to meet.
At this point, Rockstar decided to release another 2D game, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars.
Released for handhelds, the games had an added challenge: Being released for two very different consoles. The PSP version had superior graphics and minigame controls had to be changed due to platform differences. Multiplayer was smaller, but extra content such as missions, radio stations, and an entirely new character were included. The Nintendo DS version of the game utilized the touch screen and microphone to utilize the map, GPS, hail taxis, aim grenades, and more.
The game itself, set in Liberty City, follows the player character Huang Lee's rise through the Triads and finished with its own cynical ending.
This game was a critical success as well, though it also garnered its own controversy due to a minigame revolving around dealing drugs.
That was the last that was seen of Grand Theft Auto for four years. But in 2013, Rockstar would prove that the franchise was in no way getting stale. Rather, it was only getting bigger and bigger - and they showed it by releasing what many people consider the greatest video game in history.
Grand Theft Auto V: Rockstar becomes the king of gaming
To say Grand Theft Auto V is a success is like saying a cake is just some ingredients smashed together: It is a gross understatement.
Rockstar spared no expense when making this game. With a team of around 1,000 people working together, the developers pooled together their experience refined from developing several other Rockstar properties, such as Red Dead Redemption and Max Payne 3.
The game was revealed out of nowhere in 2011 and a massive marketing campaign was underway. The team became more familiar with the hardware of the consoles they would be releasing on, taking full advantage of their capabilities to create a fully realized living and breathing world.
The game itself was set exclusively in Los Santos, but was far bigger than merely being one of the cities included in San Andreas.
No longer limited by the hardware that limited San Andreas, GTA V included a true urban sprawl, making a new version of Los Angeles in the form of Los Santos - and it came with a script equally massive to boot.
The world is so detailed that they can do everything from scuba diving to visiting movie theaters to literally using the internet to trade stocks.
The plot itself was developed following the 2008 financial crisis and reflected the desire for characters to get rich. As such, while all sorts of criminal activity can be committed during the game, one crime in particular is at the heart and soul of the game: Heists.
And at the heart of this complex crime drama are the three player characters that players must control: Michael De Santa, a retired bank robber rich from his crimes; Trevor Philips, an unhinged and violent career criminal; and Franklin Clinton, an ambitious street hustler hoping to strike it big.
Unlike other games, which either just have one character rise through the criminal underworld or be on a mission for revenge, GTA V has the three characters with their own backstories and motivations, each of them involved in crime for different reasons, and bound together for the remainder of a branching and interactive plot culminating in a grand finale.
The detailed world also featured its own host of Easter eggs and mysteries, with the inclusion of a very complicated quest line to find bigfoot culminating in a bizarre showdown between bigfoot and a werewolf. In fact, detail appears to be everywhere, from the lighting to the weight and handling of each car.
Few games were as successful as Grand Theft Auto V was. In fact, only one game has ever sold more copies: Minecraft (some figures claim Tetris outsells it too, though this is debated).
Many people expected Rockstar to follow this up with more DLC or expansion packs, as was the case with GTA IV. And indeed, data miners found plans for that. However, Rockstar never followed through with it. Instead, for over 10 years, their focus went to something else.
Grand Theft Auto Online: When Rockstar embraced multiplayer and took it too far
Grand Theft Auto didn't have proper multiplayer for a while. But with GTA V, Rockstar arguably overcorrected. The multiplayer feature was its own entire mass multiplayer online game.
Well, the distinction of whether Grand Theft Auto Online is a true MMO is a subject of debate, though it is still a multiplayer online game, even if not "massive."
Despite this, the game has been running for over 10 years now at the time of writing, and Rockstar went all in on creating content for the game.
Set in the same world as GTA V, the game received constant updates and new content over the years. It initially had mixed reception, but as time went on, the content was better received, and it always had a very active player base.
It proved profitable, too. In 2022, analysts cited by the Wall Street Journal claimed that Grand Theft Auto Online managed to rake in at least $500 million in that year alone. It made that same profit between 2013 and 2016, too.
And that's not even counting the financial success of Grand Theft Auto V by itself. The game earned $800 million within 24 hours of its release, and $1 billion within 72 hours.
It has sold over 200 million copies since release and has a revenue of over $8.5 billion.
To put those figures in perspective, Grand Theft Auto as a franchise has sold over 405 million copies. Around half of that is from GTA V alone.
These numbers also make Grand Theft Auto V one of the most successful entertainment products of all time, raking in more than most movies - though the fact that the video game industry overall is more profitable than movies and music combined helps.
But the franchise hasn't only been limited to influencing the gaming industry. It has also permeated the world of pop culture, in the form of a dedicated fanbase and widespread memes.
No WASTED potential here: Grand Theft Auto and the world of memes
Grand Theft Auto's enormous stockpile of memes and pop culture impact go far beyond the creation of GTA clones. While they have only grown over time, arguably the most lasting of these memes came from the very beginning: WASTED.
In all GTA games - with the exception of GTA IV and its expansions - the phrase WASTED, written in all caps in a now iconic font, is what would always appear on screen when a character dies in game. It is also accompanied by a familiar sound effect, slowed down animation, and the screen turns gray.
This very quickly became a popular meme format, and is one that is often still used today.
To list the number of memes created from the Grand Theft Auto franchise would take a series of articles. However, aside from the WASTED meme, the two games that are arguably the source of the most memes are GTA V, San Andreas, and GTA VI.
The fact that GTA V has created an entire host of memes is to be expected. As one of the single most popular video games in history, it has a foothold in pop culture on par with some of the most iconic games of all time.
These memes vary wildly, ranging from simple photo edits to videos, from references to in-game features to using it as a base upon which to reference other pop culture content. The propensity for crime and the in-game physics have also been the source of many memes, as have elements surrounding the characters and the story itself.
Using it as a platform for references is also aided by how big and detailed the game is, as well as mods that exist for it.
But arguably the most influential meme to come out of GTA V is how in-game footage, usually of cars on an obstacle course, very quickly became a popular backdrop for short-form videos, such as on TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels. The idea was simple: Have footage of a car on a GTA obstacle course, and overlay it with audio from either a skit of some kind, or more commonly, reading posts off of Reddit. It was a format that was highly successful, and was also used with footage from Subway Surfers and Minecraft.
San Andreas's memes are also incredibly numerous, arguably even moreso. This is in part due to the game's longevity. While GTA V is incredibly popular and successful, it is also far newer. San Andreas has been out for much longer and was a huge game-changer in the industry when it was released, so it arguably had a bigger and longer-lasting impact.
Like GTA V, much of the meme content surrounded the plot and characters, in particular the memorable characters of Big Smoke, Ryder, and of course CJ.
CJ in particular is the focus of many memes, with one popular meme format in past years being simply modding CJ into other games.
However, by far, the most memorable and long-lasting meme from San Andreas comes from the first line CJ says in the game - at least, the first line outside of the opening cutscene: "Ah s***, here we go again."
It's a meme that has truly withstood the test of time, and as meme formats and technology evolves, this meme has evolved with it.
With GTA VI, however, the situation is very different. This is because for several years, there was only one meme about the game: The fact that it didn't exist.
GTA V came out in 2013, but practically 10 years went by without any news of a new installment in the series. Admittedly, Rockstar did release another full game during that time, Red Dead Redemption 2, which was met with universal critical acclaim and commercial success. However, regarding GTA, all fans saw for years was a few ports of previous games to new platforms, as well support for GTA Online, which while popular, did not meet the demand for a new single player GTA experience.
The resulting meme format was very simple. It would be that something happened before GTA VI came out. For example, "We got [insert thing here] before we got GTA VI." This meme further evolved to illustratively depicting how much time has passed before the game would come out. For example, a group of elderly men sitting together with the caption "Me and the homies when GTA VI comes out," or something to that effect.
Me and the homies when GTA 6 finally comes out pic.twitter.com/unGar3qZPT
— ✈️ (@mldiffley) June 29, 2021
This meme itself is not original. Other franchises have had new installments that saw years of development hell, leaving fans annoyed at the lack of new content.
The most famous of these games is, unquestionably, Half-Life 3, when the last installment Half-Life 2: Episode Two ended on a major cliffhanger when it was released in 2007. However, fans waited for years for a sequel that seemed to never come, no Half-Life 3 or Half-Life 2: Episode Three.
When GTA VI does inevitably come out though, it is likely to inspire another new generation of memes, with no small amount of them likely centered around the fact that the game is set in the GTA universe's equivalent of Florida.
So what does the future have in store?
Grand Theft Auto VI: Return of the king
In 2022, after a leak revealed its existence, Rockstar confirmed that Grand Theft Auto VI was coming and releasing a trailer in December 2023.
We don't know much about the game yet, though we do know it is a return to Vice City.
So far, the only controversy surrounding it is the leaking of information about the game in 2022, which was accomplished by a teenager from the UK who somehow accessed the source code of GTA VI while on bail under police protection using his phone, a TV, and an Amazon Fire TV Stick.
Regardless, the game is shaping up to be a major success by hype alone. And if it is anything like the previous games, then it will show once again that Rockstar is very much capable of living up to the hype.
Jacob Laznik contributed to this report.