Ten days before launch, The Guardian traces the series from DMA Design in 1997 to GTA VI and asks where GTA belongs between game, film and art.
Sources theguardian.com
Ten days before launch, The Guardian publishes a long read on the question the series has asked since 1997: where does GTA belong, between video game, cinema and art? The British paper traces Rockstar's history and concludes that the franchise has become "a cultural colossus".
The piece opens on a memory from the 2000s. When Rockstar revealed a project, UK games writers were invited to its London office and ushered one by one into a darkened room facing a huge TV. The studio sometimes began with clips from classic movies rather than game footage. The message, the writer says: this is the context of what we are making, and this is where we belong.
According to The Guardian, the first GTA was made in 1997 by Scottish studio DMA Design, viewed from above, with a high-spirited tone inherited from pinball. Designer Paul Farley said in 2015 there was no budget for a trip to the US and only one internet-connected PC in the whole studio. The team would swap the films and music of their weekend every Monday. Car names such as Impaler and Mundano already echo Martin Amis's novel Money. With GTA III in 2001 the series went 3D, and the skyscrapers of Liberty City, based on New York, rose over players.
The article recalls some figures: GTA V, released in 2013, has sold more than 230 million copies, and GTA VI reportedly cost over $1bn. The paper calls it likely the biggest video game release of all time, one that sent rival games looking for other dates. It also notes that the game's first in-depth reveal came through a Netflix special. These figures are the Guardian's; Rockstar publishes no budget.
Read also GTA 6 launch gallery: Rockstar releases 38 new images
Meanwhile we track pre-orders, pre-loading and boxes on the release page.
Nothing changes in the game, but the tone of the debate does. When a major daily treats GTA as a work in its own right, with literary references, the November 19 launch is no longer only a commercial event. Whether GTA VI lives up to that ambition nobody can judge before playing it.
Sources theguardian.com
Reported Reported by the press, not confirmed by Rockstar
By Chloé · GTAVIFRANCE newsroom
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