The hype was insane. Rockstar Games had been teasing this beast for years. The previous game, GTA IV, came out in 2008. Fans were starving.
Then came the trailers. Three characters. A massive desert. A jet ski. Michael, Franklin, and Trevor. We knew it was going to be huge. Nobody knew it would be the fastest entertainment property to hit a billion dollars in history.
Think about that. In three days, GTA V made more money than most blockbuster movies make in their entire run. That’s just bonkers.
The Console War Winner
It launched on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Those consoles were old by 2013. Yet GTA V made them dance like they were brand new.
The game pushed those chips to their absolute limit. It was a swan song. A gorgeous, chaotic, crime-ridden farewell to a generation of hardware. Nobody saw it coming.
Grand Theft Auto V Official Release Date set for September 17, 2013
And the map? Los Santos and Blaine County were staggering. You could hike a mountain. You could scuba dive. You could steal a fighter jet from a military base. All on a box from 2005.