It seems absurd when you stop to think about it. Grand Theft Auto 5 has been around for almost ten years and is now the dominant game on its third generation consoles. This is a dynasty without children. There are other games that are equally successful. League of Legends has been around for a decade and never seemed to be in decline. GTA 5 was not a live service. It wasn’t when it launched. GTA Online was the game you could play if you wanted to spend a miserable day in Los Santos. It had repetitive missions and lost data. It took Michael De Santa years to get in shape. He was huffing and puffing his way through his yoga class. The online mode that has made Rockstar’s money cow was GTA 5’s sole offering at launch. It would have been like APB: All Points Bulletin.
Instead, GTA 5 will be on sale as the sun sets on Prime Day. It is also on sale on PS5 in North America, and every other platform in North America. This has sparked another flood of sales for the Rockstar game that keeps giving to both players and Sam Houser. Sam Houser was included in the Sunday Times Rich List in 2020 (PS310m and combined).
What is the secret to GTA 5? What is it? The cars, the vast world, or the chaos created by GTA5 cheats. There is no single answer. Instead, there are many little things that GTA 5 did better than any other game for a long time.
(Image credit: Rockstar Games)
Rockstar’s AAA colleagues have recently copied the Rockstar support characters’ naturalism by picking up the conversation back where they left off, and then stopping speaking when they were interrupted by fender benders in the open. Los Santos’s convincingly uneven road surface is a characteristic that makes open-world driving games like Rockstar’s AAA rivals. This unique feature makes street racing highly skill-based, and even contemplative. My favorite feature is the way that cutscenes begin without you even realizing, almost as casually as a thought entering my head.
“We’re hoping to tread ground that hasn’t been walked before and find a better way to tread it each time,” Dan Houser said in The Guardian in 2013. “And that’s not just what I mean as a writer, but also as a technician in terms of how we use the cameras for cutscenes, seamless interrelation between cutscenes with the game, and other things like this. We have made great progress – we have better tech and better technicians working with it.
None of these details alone would guarantee a 10-year shelf-life for a game. GTA 5 had so many details that even an industry of AAA developers, who are used to borrowing ideas from their peers, couldn’t keep up. Rockstar’s unmatched history and bottomless budget meant that rivals had to choose their battles to catch up with what GTA had established to be the next-next generation best practice. Everything that was supposed to have been antiquated about GTA 5 didn’t.
There are limits and Los Santos will soon start to look like a middle-aged, poor Michael. The catch-up will start again with GTA6. Rockstar’s supercar-modified street race never ends.
US deals
Grand Theft Auto 5: $39.99 Amazon: $19.99
Enjoy a Discount of 50% You already know the name of it: The open-world crime simulator that has beaten every competitor. GTA 5 comes with GTA Online. This is a cheap way to pretend you’re extremely rich while you swan around LA. It’s possible to hear new music by Dr. Dre, as unlikely as it may sound.
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Grand Theft Auto 5 Premium Edition – PS4 $29.99 Amazon: $23.06
Save 23% You already know the name of it: The open-world crime simulator that has beaten every competitor. GTA 5 comes with GTA Online. This is a cheap way to pretend you’re extremely rich while you swan around LA. It’s possible to hear new music by Dr. Dre, as unlikely as it may sound.
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Grand Theft Auto 5 Premium Edition (Xbox One). $29.99 Amazon: $20.97
Get 30% off – It’s the most popular open-world crime simulator, and it has defeated every competitor. GTA 5 comes with GTA Online. This is a cheap way to pretend you’re extremely rich while you swan around LA. It’s possible to hear new music by Dr. Dre, as unlikely as it may sound.
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UK deals
Grand Theft Auto 5 Premium Edition (Xbox One). PS24.99 PS12.97 on Amazon
Save 48% – It’s the most popular open-world crime simulator, and it has defeated every competitor. GTA 5 comes with GTA Online. This is a cheap way to pretend you’re extremely rich while you whizz around LA. It’s possible to hear new music by Dr. Dre, as unlikely as it may sound.
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Grand Theft Auto 5 Premium Edition, (PS4) PS24.99 PS13.95 on Amazon
Save 44% – It’s the most popular open-world crime simulator, and it has defeated every competitor. GTA 5 comes with GTA Online. This is a cheap way to pretend you’re extremely rich while you swan around LA. It’s possible to hear new music by Dr. Dre, as unlikely as it may sound.
