Who Owns Grand Theft Auto (GTA)?

DMA Design, a Scottish video game developer based in Edinburgh, created the original Grand Theft Auto in 1997. The game was a top-down action game allowing players to freely explore a city, steal cars, and complete criminal missions. Its open-world freedom and criminal theme were controversial but commercially successful. DMA Design was later renamed Rockstar North after Take-Two acquired the studio.

Grand Theft Auto III (2001) was the franchise's defining moment. It transitioned to a fully three-dimensional open world with a third-person perspective on the PlayStation 2. GTA III's Liberty City (a fictional New York) was vast and detailed, filled with pedestrians, traffic, and ambient life. The game sold over 14 million copies and fundamentally changed the video game industry, inspiring countless open-world games that followed.

GTA: Vice City (2002) and GTA: San Andreas (2004) continued the franchise's dominance. San Andreas became one of the best-selling games of the PlayStation 2 era, featuring a massive open world spanning three cities and rural areas with a story inspired by 1990s West Coast hip-hop culture.

Grand Theft Auto IV (2008) marked the franchise's transition to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 generation, featuring a more realistic and cinematic approach with a story about an Eastern European immigrant in a fictionalized New York City. GTA IV sold over 25 million copies.

Grand Theft Auto V (2013) became one of the best-selling entertainment products of all time. The game has sold over 210 million copies across multiple platform generations (PS3/Xbox 360, PS4/Xbox One, PS5/Xbox Series X). It featured three playable protagonists and a massive open world set in a fictionalized Los Angeles. GTA Online, the game's multiplayer component, has generated billions of dollars in revenue through in-game purchases (Shark Cards) and has kept the game commercially relevant for over a decade.

Grand Theft Auto VI was announced in December 2023 with a trailer that broke records for the most-viewed video game trailer in YouTube history within 24 hours, generating over 90 million views. The game is set in Leonida, a fictionalized Florida, with Vice City (a fictionalized Miami) as the primary setting.

Rockstar originally targeted a 2025 release for GTA VI. The company delayed the game to May 26, 2026, and then delayed it again to November 19, 2026, stating it needed more time to deliver the level of quality and polish fans expect. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has repeatedly confirmed the November 19, 2026 date in earnings calls, shareholder letters, and interviews throughout 2026, stating that Grand Theft Auto is "the most valuable entertainment IP ever created."

Pre-orders for GTA VI opened on June 25, 2026, at midnight local time. The standard edition costs $79.99 and the Ultimate Edition costs $99.99. Pre-loading begins November 12, 2026. The game launches on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. No PC release date has been announced. Analytics firm Newzoo estimated the pre-order campaign generated approximately $260 million in global digital pre-order spending in its first week, the strongest pre-order opening it has ever recorded.