Grand Theft Auto V has survived a whole generation of consoles

It’s 2020 and one of the biggest video games on the planet is Grand Theft Auto V. In 2021, Rockstar will release an “extended and improved” version of the game for next-gen consoles.

Grand Theft Auto V, in case you forget, first released on Xbox 360 and PS3 in September 2013. It didn’t arrive on PS4 and Xbox One until 2014.

Let that invade you for a second. A single video game released before the PS4 and Xbox One even hit shelves has remained both culturally relevant and commercially successful throughout the lives of those consoles, and will now see an even longer lifespan. once it’s released on PS5 and Xbox. X series.

To give you an idea of ​​how long ago, the game came out with a trailer that talked about America’s attempts to recover from its latest financial crisis, and there has been another since. Other games that made the September 2013 bestseller list include Diablo III, Disney infinity and Saints Row IV.

Or how about other passage of time shenanigans: the five years of the PlayStation 2 generation saw three main lines Grand Theft Auto games released on it. Since San Andreas’ released in 2004, there were only two new Grand Theft Auto games released in sixteen years. Two on the PlayStation 3 and no on the PlayStation 4.

There are of course several good reasons for this slowdown. Development costs and lead times have exploded along with the technological capabilities of the new consoles, which means it just isn’t possible to get out. GTA games as close together as before. Then there is the fact that Red Dead Redemption Games consumed their own massive amounts of resources that Rockstar didn’t have to worry about in the PS2 era.

The main reason we haven’t had a new one Grand Theft Auto game since 2013, however, is simply that Rockstar and Take-Two I didn’t have to get out of it, and won’t do it before GTA Online continues to earn money.

A single game lasting seven years (and that counts!) Is impressive, right? In a way, of course, but also, not really! There are a lot of things here that suck. Rockstar’s crunch culture sounds like hell for the devs making these games, and for those of us who are not connected GTA Online economy it’s a shame that we don’t have to see a new city / period in a Grand Theft Auto game for almost a decade.

And while it wasn’t technically a game from this last generation, Grand Theft Auto V’s slow the transformation of a single-player experience into an online playground riddled with microtransaction is one of the most vivid examples of how the video game industry has changed the way it deals its product, and its customers, in the PS4 / Xbox One years.

Few of those for the best.

Who knows when we’ll see a Grand Theft Auto VI. But whenever this is inevitably announced, one thing is certain: Grand Theft Auto V’s longevity and online success means the series will never be the same again.