The Grand Theft Auto (GTA) Series Trivia
I had compiled this as a mail to friends in December 2006, and just came across it again now. I thought I'd share it. I have not edited it with new sales figures and GTA IV is not even considered until the very end. Despite that, it chronicles the importance and impact of the GTA series in video
games sphere. The below facts will surely enthuse hardcore gamers...not sure about others, but they might find the 14 th point rather interesting!!!
1.
GTA franchise is the 6th highest selling game series of all time, after Mario (193 million), Pokémon (155 million),Final Fantasy (68 million),The Sims (54 million) and Madden NFL (51 million). The Grand Theft Auto series has sold 50 million games.
2.
Debuting Years:Mario (1981), Pokémon (1995),Final Fantasy (1987),The Sims (1989),Madden NFL (1984),Grand Theft Auto (1998)
No. of games in the series:Mario (130), Pokémon (493),Final Fantasy (12),The Sims (27),Madden NFL (20),Grand Theft Auto (6 with 4 'add-on's)
Considering the above facts, GTA series has the highest sales per game of all time. And the vast majority of the sales are for GTA III, Vice City and San Andreas.
3.
Individually, the top-seeling games of all times are shown below:
i. Super Mario Bros. 3 (18 million)
ii. Super Mario Land (14 million)
iii. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (13 million)
iv. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (12 million)
v. Grand Theft Auto III (11 million)
vi.Super Mario 64 (11 million)
vii.Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec (11 million)
Note that the 3,4 & 5 positions are for the GTA games.
4.
The San Andreas sales figure of 12 million has been recorded within 6 months of its release, making it the one to get the highest initial sales.
5.
In the Sony PlayStation2 platform, the 3 highest selling games are San Andreas, Vice City & GTA III respectively!
6.
The games in the GTA family are:
Grand Theft Auto
a. Grand Theft Auto: London, 1969
b. Grand Theft Auto: London, 1961
Grand Theft Auto 2
Grand Theft Auto III
a. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
a. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto Advance
7.
The hero of GTA III had no name. Infact he never uttered a single word throughout the game. But at the ending of San Andreas, it is revealed that the GTA III hero’s first name is Claude! Interestingly, the hero of GTA 2 has the name Claude Speed!
8.
The difference that made the GTA series click is the freedom that it offers gamers to choose their mission (or even not to choose!). GTA III combined the sand-box style and open-world style of gaming. The GTA gameplay was replicated by atleast 20 game series that released after the success of it.
9.
The fictinal cities in the GTA series are actually inspired from some American Cities:
Liberty City: New York
Vice City: Miami
San Andras: Yeah, you guessed it right…San Francisco.
10.
GTA San Andreos stars Carl CJ Johnson, an African-American... making it the first game of its sort to star a black man. Also, like the previous two GTA games, San Andreas's voice actors includes notable celebrities, including Charlie Murphy, Samuel L. Jackson, James Woods, Peter Fonda, Frank Vincent, the late Chris Penn, rappers Ice T, Chuck D and The Game and musicians Axl Rose and Shaun Ryder.
11.
The hero of the GTA series couldn't swim. When he falls to water he just sinks and GAME OVER! But that problem was solved in San Andreos, where he was gifted with the ability to swim.
12.
The GTA series was under fire since the launch of GTA III because of its violent nature. GTA III and Vice City has pending lawsuits in the US courts. The major criticism was on the focus of illegal activities in the game compared to the good-man heros of other usual games. The main character can commit a wide variety of crimes and violent acts while dealing with only temporary consequences, including the killing of policemen and military personnel. Opponents believe that players will try to emulate this behavior.
On October 20, 2003, the families of Aaron Hamel and Kimberly Bede, two young people shot by teens William and Josh Buckner (who in statements to investigators claimed their actions were inspired by GTA III) filed a US$246 million lawsuit against publishers Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive Software, retailer Wal-Mart, and PlayStation 2 manufacturer Sony Computer Entertainment America. The lawsuit was dismissed later.
13.
Another criticism was on racial abuses in some parts of the games. Dialogoues like"These Haitians! We take 'em out!" and missions to kill immigrants from Haiti and Cuba landed the Vice City in fire.
14.
A factor that the gamers of GTA notice is the excess of nudity and sex. In GTA III the hero could take prostitutes to his car and after some intended sex, increase his health upto 125 points, which stops at 100 otherwise! The girl will take money from you but you can get it back by killing her! A bit brutal, isn’t it? Because of some problem with the Australian game censorship board, this feature was disabled in the Australian version! The biggest of all fuck-ups (as per the GTA language) was the San Andreas ‘Hot Cofee’ controversy. At one point of the game, one girl invites Carl CJ Johnson, the hero for a ‘hot coffee’ to her house. The game actually had some intended sex between the two with swivelled camera motion from ouside the house and some ‘ooh..aah’s. But after installing a unofficial add-on patch, the player actually can go into the house and have ….you know what! It actually acted like a mini-game with crude graphics. The gamer really has controls and the ‘mission’ is to keep the ‘excitement level’ of the girl to the max! It is debated that the ‘hot coffee code’ was actually there in the game package and the patch just opens it up!
The ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corp ) news about the controversy.
Below are the links to the GTA trailers:
GTA III:
GTA Vice City:
GTA San Andreas:
NB: The next game in the series, GTA IV released in April 2008. True to the heritage of the series, the title also was a smash-hit. As of May 2010, it is the Guinness World Records holder of "Highest grossing video game in 24 hours" and "Highest Revenue Generated by an Entertainment Product in 24 Hours" titles.
More info on the series:
Wikipedia page
Rockstar Games
