I could see why parents would deem this dangerous. Think about it this way – The game gave teenagers the ability to drive recklessly, murder and steal, in the game. In 1997, the game was rebranded and launched on PC and Playstation.

That’s the same formula GTA V uses today if you think about it. In 1993, Scottish game developer, David Jones gifted the world ‘Race And Chase – Get Truckin’ – It started off as a 2D open-world game when one could drive, destroy and essentially teleport into a digital city where one’s antics were limitless and the consequences didn’t matter. Grand Theft Auto was born with a different name that most of us aren’t familiar with. Despite GTA V making its debut in 2013, it reported over 140 million active players across platforms in Q4 of 2020. It’s also the 3rd best-selling game of all time, right after Tetris and Minecraft, and the most popular video game of the last decade. Back in May of 2020, the game was available for free on Steam and is reported to have seen close to 20 million downloads causing the site to crash.

It managed to rack up more than a billion dollars in just 24 hours of release.

Today, with a total of 16 editions, they’ve sold over 350 million copies and with their last instalment, Grand Theft Auto V with 150 million+ sales alone. However, we wonder – How did this singular open-world franchise blow up? What led to its success? And why was it so controversial that Australia, Germany and Great Brittain were banning it? © Provided by Lifestyle Asia I mean, what else would a teenager want? It’s a no-brainer really. More so, the cheats, guns and mods literally allowed you to jump into a fully customisable reality with a real ‘No Holds Barred’ feeling. Driving an Infernus down the Vice City coastal strip or doing The Green Sabre mission in San Andreas certainly has an unmatched charm. Right since the late 90s, whenever someone copped a new gaming console – Be it an Xbox, Playstation or Windows, the first game on their wishlist was always a GTA or Grand Theft Auto.

Samuel jackson in gta 9