Who Owns Grand Theft Auto (GTA)?

Grand Theft Auto was created in 1997 by DMA Design (later renamed Rockstar North), a Scottish video game developer based in Edinburgh. The original GTA was a top-down action game that allowed players to freely explore a city, steal cars, and complete criminal missions. The game's open-world freedom and criminal theme were controversial but commercially successful, establishing the franchise's core identity.

Grand Theft Auto III (2001) was the franchise's defining moment, transitioning to a fully three-dimensional open world and third-person perspective. Released for the PlayStation 2, GTA III was a technical and creative landmark that demonstrated what open-world games could achieve. The game's Liberty City (a fictional version of New York City) was vast and detailed, filled with pedestrians, traffic, and ambient life. GTA III 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, with San Andreas in particular becoming one of the best-selling games of the PlayStation 2 era. San Andreas featured 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 was critically acclaimed and commercially successful, selling over 25 million copies.

Grand Theft Auto V (2013) became one of the best-selling entertainment products of all time, with over 200 million copies sold across multiple platform generations. The game 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 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. The game is set in a fictionalized Miami and is expected to release in 2025.