GTA and the Open World
How Rockstar’s crime satire became the biggest entertainment product ever, and why GTA VI’s date keeps moving.
The studio
Rockstar Games makes Grand Theft Auto. The main studio, Rockstar North, is in Edinburgh, Scotland, which is funny for a series that roasts America so hard. Every GTA is a satire: fake radio stations, fake ads, and cities that parody real ones.
2001
GTA III
The first full 3D open world in the series. Drive anywhere, do anything. It changed games.
2002
Vice City
1980s Miami: neon, pastel suits and an all-timer ’80s soundtrack on the car radio.
2004
San Andreas
Early ’90s Los Angeles. CJ’s story about his family and his old neighborhood still gets quoted. A hidden sex minigame unlocked by a mod (the "Hot Coffee" scandal) got it pulled from shelves for a while.
2013
GTA V
Three playable characters, and $1 billion in sales in three days, the fastest any entertainment product had ever done it. It has sold more than 200 million copies, and GTA Online is still making money more than a decade later.
2018
Red Dead Redemption 2
Rockstar’s cowboy epic proves the open-world formula works way beyond crime.
December 2023
The GTA VI trailer
The first trailer sets YouTube viewing records. It’s set in Leonida, the series’ version of Florida, with a modern Vice City, and leads Lucia and Jason.
2025–2026
Delay, delay, delay
First set for fall 2025, then May 26, 2026, then November 19, 2026. It’s been delayed three times.
Pop quiz
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