So while we pass the time before that highly anticipated day arrives, let’s break down 9 facts about GTA V and the GTA franchise that will blow your mind:
9. The Franchise has lawsuits totaling over $1 billion.
GTA just can’t seem to avoid controversy. The franchise is basically the delinquent child of video games who can’t stay out of jail. Trouble and GTA go together like peanut butter and jelly and usually they use it to encourage their franchise. Rockstar’s legal troubles are well-documented, especially the one filed by disgraced Florida attorney Jack Thompson, who once referred to GTA as a “cop-killing simulator.” He filed a lawsuit against Rockstar for $246 million. Rockstar has a laundry list of lawsuits filed against them, with little to none that they actually have to pay out, but in all they total $1 billion. We'll see what happens with GTA V.
8. GTA V’s map size is twice the size of real-life Manhattan.
Rockstar recently stated that the map size of the upcoming GTA V is going to be greater than that of Red Dead Redemption, GTA IV, and GTA: San Andreas combined. New York’s Manhattan is only 23 square miles, while the GTA map sizes are respectively 28, 6.8 and 13.9 square miles. GTA IV had a pretty small map, so get ready for a massive one coming soon.
7. GTA exists because of a glitch in a different game.
You can thank Race ‘N Chase and a happy little accident while developing it that brought us to what we all know and love as GTA. The idea of the game Race ‘N Chase was similar to GTA; you were playing was cops and robbers, either performing the robberies or preventing them. If you played as a robber, the glitch that started everything caused the police cars to try to run you off the road instead of bust you. Testers loved the idea, reworked the model to better suit the dynamic. Voilà and GTA was born.
6. Rockstar allegedly paid for GTA to have negative press.
Rockstar was formerly DMA Design and at one time they enlisted PR guru Max Clifford. Clifford basically planted stories in big newspapers knowing it would spark a moral outrage. Though co-creator David Jones claims they never purposely tried to make the games controversial, he did say they did everything from the perspective of what would be the most fun and that just kept taking them down a dark path. Well kids, that might work for video games, but definitely don’t take as a life lesson.
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5. GTA V cost more to make than Watchmen and Prometheus.
Although GTA rakes in hundreds of millions within days of launching, it’s not too shocking that the game costs just as much to make. GTA V reportedly cost in the range of $137 million, which is slightly more than blockbuster movies Watchmen and Prometheus. Both films budgeted around $130 million to make. GTA V will most likely make that money back on launch day, though.
4. World Record Completion time for GTA III is 1 hour and 12 minutes.
Not many gamers attempt to speed run a game like GTA, however a YouTube user by the name of MSuraev posted a speed run of GTA III the beginning of this year and got through the game in 1 hour, 12 minutes and 10 seconds. Killing enemies without prompts, power-sliding and knowing every traffic pattern only proves he‘s at the height of his game. It’s alright; we won’t ask you your completion time because he clearly will put you to shame.
3. GTA IV has 80,000 lines of dialogue.
GTA always maintains their quality of strong voice acting throughout the series and it’s always been praised for that. It’s great they keep their standards up to par, but kudos to the script writer of GTA IV which contains a staggering 80,000 lines of dialogue. Let’s just compare for a second: Mass Effect 3 has 40,000 lines and Fallout: New Vegas has 65,000 – which was a world record for role-playing games at the time. But with all the passerby’s talking on cell phones you need to have a lot of dialogue in GTA. It’s unclear how much dialogue GTA V will have but with the map already being double the size, it’ll most definitely top this.
2. The combined length of GTA Talk Radio Stations is over 9 hours.
The hilarious radio stations in the GTA series play everything from resident DJ Lazlow to comedic political shows that butcher American culture. It’s beautifully written – all 9 hours of it! Throughout the games there is 9 hours and 27 minutes of talk radio stations. Will Lazlow return in GTA V? We can only hope!
1.GTA Franchise sales total 125 million copies
GTA has been around for 15 years and it’s no surprise it’s pulled in massive amounts of money. Last year Take Two Interactive revealed that the franchise sold 125 million copies to date. They jumped 11 million units from the previous year and it doesn’t look like the franchise is slowing down anytime soon. This puts GTA ahead of other franchises like Call of Duty, Final Fantasy, and FIFA. More family-friendly games like Mario, Pokemon and The Sims have topped the GTA franchise, but with GTA V soon to be released to the masses, it may surpass the latter as well.
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