In the world of Videogames, there are the regular games, the AAA heavyweighs ranging from all-time classics to modern blockbusters, and then there’s GTA or Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto series which stands in a whole another league in the entire medium in terms of influence, grandiosity and legacy. And after more than two decades, it’s difficult to pinpoint the exact reason why the GTA series has become so iconic, so genre-redefining but according to Rockstar Co-Founder Dan Houser, the unparalleled sense of freedom that’s one of the biggest hallmarks of the series, probably has a lot to do with that.
In a brief interview with Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch, Houser stated: “I think it’s partly that, partly it put you in this exaggerated cinematic world, and mostly I would argue because it was this sense of freedom. Before that, games were either a shooting game or a driving game or a simulation game, and [GTA] was all three smashed together in a way that felt very free. And just, also, you know, when people talk about the metaverse or this digital world, those were the first games that showed you this idea of living in this fake place.”
He also revealed that it was during the development of GTA 3 when they started to see the “magical” quality first take shape which would eventually go on to define the blueprint of open world gameplay that’s in the DNA of pretty much every single game that presents a living world to the player as his or her playground.
“I think all of the team felt, with GTA 3, which was the kind of big breakthrough one in 2001 and we were very much running out of money at the time as a company–I think all of the team thought, ‘This could be amazing. There’s something really magical about this,'” Houser continued. “It was very raw and put together, but as it began to come together, it had these sort of moments of real innovation and real, kind of–it felt like the future in a way. But then, until it came out, no one outside of our company was very excited by it. That came out just after 9/11 in late 2001, and as it came out, people started to get more excited about it.”
Although there’s another aspect to GTA as well which is a tad bit darker and presents a basically lawless, chaotic version of the urban world that we see in most of our everyday reality and what these games do is a give us a kind of simulated version of that reality where the player will be able to get away with things that they just can’t in the real world in any way. The ultraviolent possibilities inherent in these games, if you play in a certain way, also point out that GTA manages to tap into a part of us that finds those aspects in the games or those particular experiences as highly enjoyable.
GTA 6 is slated to be released on November 19, 2026 for the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
