The teaser for Grand Theft Auto 6, the first game in the mega-hit criminal franchise in more than a decade, has gone viral this week.
We look back at previous releases – and the uproar that greeted them – from their rough origins to their multiplayer mayhem.
GTA is a series of crime-drama video games set in (mainly) fictionalized locations across the United States.
In each game, the player assumes the role of a criminal (or criminals) navigating modern America’s violent underground, stealing automobiles and carrying out missions and heists for a variety of shadowy kingpins.
The latest games, in particular, include enormous, fully explorable towns or states, and players are free to do whatever they like outside of missions, whether it’s roaming the countryside on a bike or taking on side jobs for car thieves, drug smugglers, or corrupt politicians.
The original Grand Theft Auto was created by DMA Design, a Dundee-based studio that also created the well-known platforming game Lemmings.
The game was an unloved project at the time, and publisher BMG Interactive nearly canceled it multiple times.
It is now one of the world’s most successful franchises, built by developer Rockstar’s studios around the world and led from Edinburgh by Rockstar North.
Grand Theft Auto (1997)
In this first installment, players select a character from eight options and then run around three crudely drawn top-down cities – Liberty (based on New York), San Andreas (San Francisco), and Vice City (Miami) – stealing cars, running over pedestrians, and completing jobs for a powerful hoodlum.
Its amoral violence sparked media criticism when it was released on the PlayStation and PC. BMG Interactive engaged publicist Max Clifford, who decided to inflame the debate, resulting in the game being condemned in the House of Lords by then-Scottish Secretary Lord Campbell of Croy.
Two expansion packs followed, GTA London 1969 and London 1961, which are the only GTA games set outside of the United States.
Grand Theft Auto II (1999)
This sequel, set in the futuristic Anywhere City, looks nearly identical to its predecessor, with the same top-down visuals, nameless protagonist character, and open-world, mission-based gameplay.
It does, however, introduce the idea of competing crime syndicates for whom the player can work, earning respect and unlocking better assignments. It also permits you to do lawful side occupations like taxi driving and package delivery.
Apart from the fact that it debuted with an eight-minute live-action movie beginning and was the only GTA game to be released on Sega’s Dreamcast system, it is essentially forgettable.
Grand Theft Auto III (2001)
This game, created by Rockstar North after the demise of DMA Design, marks the beginning of the contemporary GTA era.
The notion of doing illegal operations for criminal groups remained, but the primary character now had a backstory: he was seeking vengeance after being dumped after a heist.
It was also the first game in the series to employ a completely 3D environment: a revamped version of the New York-themed Liberty City.
This departure from a top-down perspective, along with the liveliness of its game environment, engaging low-life characters, and celebrity voice-acting performances from Debi Mazar and Kyle Maclachlan, resulted in a critical and commercial blockbuster hit.
Another issue arose when it was revealed that players could pick up sex workers for a health boost and then kill them to earn their money back – despite the fact that, contrary to the horrified reporting at the time, the game never required such activity. The GTA ideology is that players should be able to do whatever they desire, even if it is morally repugnant.
Later, two portable titles would act as prequels to the game: Grand Theft Auto Advance on the Game Boy Advance was released in 2004, and its visual design was heavily influenced by the original two GTA titles.
Rockstar Leeds launched Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories on the Sony PSP the next year, bringing 3D visuals to the handheld spin-offs.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002)
Now we get to what some consider the series’ defining game: the story of gangster-on-the-rise Tommy Viccenti, who has just been freed from jail and is trying to climb through the criminal ranks of Vice City, a sleazy metropolis based in Miami.
Yes, it’s a cross between Brian de Palma’s Scarface and Miami Vice, with a similar mix of great music, hot narcotics, and uncontrolled violence.
The 80s scenario, complete with a modern pop soundtrack, was a wonderful idea, allowing players to blow up speedboats and crash planes while listening to Flock of Seagulls. This was also the height of the debate.
The Haitian Centres Council condemned the game’s portrayal of immigrants, and Rockstar was named in two multimillion-dollar lawsuits filed by the relatives of murder victims in incidents where the game was believed to have inspired the killers.
In 2006, a prequel adventure named Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories was released for the Sony PSP portable, with a guest voice-acting performance by Phil Collins.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004)
This is very much the developer’s take on Boyz n the Hood, Menace II Society, and the many other comparable movies from the late 1990s, set in Rockstar’s version of California, featuring its LA-like metropolis Los Santos.
Carl “CJ” Johnson is a former gang member who returns to the ghetto for his mother’s burial and reverts to his old habits.
The huge map includes three cities, several scenery, and a plethora of activities ranging from gambling to cycling. It also features one of the series’ biggest villains, Officer Frank Tenpenny, who is voiced by Samuel L Jackson.
The “Hot Coffee” scandal, in which a sex scene was initially taken out of the game was discovered by hackers, still hiding in the code, and made available online, will also be remembered for GTA: San Andreas.
Congress demanded action, and Rockstar creators Sam and Dan Houser found themselves in the midst of their own tense side quest: being interrogated by the Federal Trade Commission.
Grand Theft Auto IV (2008)
Rockstar’s dark parable of the immigrant experience features Niko Bellic, an eastern European former soldier who arrives in Liberty City to pursue the American dream – in his case, organized crime.
It was the first GTA game to use a mobile as a HUD gadget, allowing Niko to order cabs, call pals, and manage his burgeoning wealth.
The game is noted for its more grim tone – and for Niko’s cousin Roman’s neediness, who constantly, always wants to go bowling.
Although Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) attempted to have the game categorized as adults-only in the United States due to its depiction of vehicle chases involving intoxicated drivers, the game did not spark as many particular problems as previous ones.
The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony were released as follow-up chapters in 2009, indicating Rockstar’s growing interest in prolonging the duration of each major GTA release.
Grand Theft Auto V (2013)
GTA V would become a giant after its initial release on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Whereas GTA IV was a critique of the American dream, this game was a scathing indictment of every corrupt and hypocritical facet of modern America.
The game sent us back to San Andreas, Rockstar’s imaginary California, and the metropolis of Los Santos, this time with three protagonists: a grudgingly retired middle-aged gangster named Michael, a hustler named Franklin, and a hillbilly madman named Trevor.
Cleverly, these three characters compartmentalized three aspects of Grand Theft Auto’s personality – satirical cinematic ambition, character-led crime drama, and violent mayhem – providing Rockstar with an outlet for every type of GTA mission, from assassinating toxic social-media moguls to desert car chases.
It featured the largest game environment we’d ever seen anywhere, detailed in depth from mountain peaks to Michael’s local tennis courts.
And, thanks to GTA Online, the multiplayer option released shortly after GTA V, that world would become home to tens of millions of people over the next decade.
Though the developer had never run an online game before, and the servers struggled to cope with demand in the first weeks, arbitrarily wiping players’ characters and progress, it has now developed into one of the most successful online games ever made.
It took years, but Rockstar eventually achieved their fantasy of rampaging across San Andreas with buddies, plotting heists, and amassing supercars.
Grand Theft Auto VI (2025)
Bringing Grand Theft Auto V to new consoles and keeping GTA Online constantly updated with new mayhem for players to get into clearly kept Rockstar busy, and an unprecedented 12-year gap between games is inevitable.
Grand Theft Auto 6 was first revealed in a small trailer in December 2023, around the time of Rockstar Games’ 25th anniversary.
It will be set in Vice City and the surrounding, characteristically Floridian state of Leonida, and will star two partner-in-crime protagonists, one of whom will be the series’ first female protagonist, an ex-con named Lucia.
It remains to be seen whether this will be enough to solve long-standing concerns about Grand Theft Auto’s treatment of women.
Since GTA V, the real America has altered so much that it’s tough to predict what satirical grenades Rockstar will be able to throw.
What more ludicrous fictional scenario could a game conjure in a world where Donald Trump was president for four years and it wasn’t enough to deter people from voting for him again?
