Why people are still buying GTA 5

by DTM | Posted on

It’s sort of ridiculous when you think about it. Grand Theft Auto 5 is almost 10 years old, and now dominating its third generation of consoles – a dynasty with no children. Sure, there are comparably successful games: League of Legends, for instance, has lasted my entire decade in games journalism without beginning to fade away. But GTA 5 wasn’t a live service. Not when it launched; not really. In 2013, GTA Online was what you played if you wanted to have a really **** day in Los Santos, punctuated by repetitive missions and lost data. It took long years to get into shape, like Michael De Santa huffing and puffing through his yoga class. If the online mode that has become Rockstar’s cash cow had been GTA 5’s only offering at launch, it would have gone the way of APB: All Points Bulletin.

Instead, as the sun sets on Prime Day, GTA 5 is on sale on PS5 in the US, and on every other platform you can think of in both North America and the UK – spurring another flurry of purchases for the Rockstar game that keeps on giving, both to players and to Sam Houser, who in 2020 was listed alongside his brother Dan in the Sunday Times Rich List (£310m combined, since you asked).

So what’s been GTA 5’s secret? In truth, there’s no one answer, but instead a host of little things that the solo game did better than anything else for a long, long time.

GTA 5 Characters

(Image credit: Rockstar Games)

The way that supporting characters stopped speaking when interrupted by fender benders out in the open world, then naturalistically picked up the conversation by returning to the start of their sentence, has only recently been mimicked by Rockstar’s AAA peers. Other open world driving games still don’t have the convincingly irregular road surfaces of Los Santos – a quirk which makes its street races highly skill-based and surprisingly contemplative affairs. Then there’s my favorite feature: the way cutscenes start without you even noticing, as casually as a thought entering your head.

“We are hopefully treading ground that hasn’t been trodden before and finding a better way of treading it each time,” Dan Houser told The Guardian in 2013. “And I don’t just necessarily mean as writers, but as technicians in terms of things like how we use the cameras to get you in and out of cutscenes, the seamless interrelation of cutscenes and the game, things like that. We’ve made so much progression – we’ve got better tech and better technicians working on it.”

Alone, none of these details would ensure a 10-year shelf life for a game. But GTA 5 was stuffed with so many that even a global industry of AAA developers – used to borrowing and iterating on the ideas of their peers – couldn’t overtake. Competing with Rockstar’s bottomless budget and unique history with the open world genre, rivals had to pick their fights, gradually catching up to what GTA had established as next-next-gen best practice. That’s why, even as the PS5 and Xbox Series X / S launched, everything that should have felt antiquated about GTA 5 didn’t.

There are limits, and soon, Los Santos will start to look its years – just like poor, uncomfortably middle-aged Michael. But by then, there’ll be GTA 6, and the catch-up process will begin anew. The street race against Rockstar’s souped-up supercar never ends.

US deals

Grand Theft Auto 5 (PS5): $39.99 $19.99 at Amazon
Save 50% – You know what it is by now: the open world crime simulator that has seen off every competitor it ever had. GTA 5 of course comes with access to GTA Online, which at this price is a very cheap way to swan around fake LA pretending you’re incredibly rich. And, unlikely as it sounds, to hear new music from Dr Dre.

View Deal

Grand Theft Auto 5 Premium Edition (PS4) $29.99 $23.06 at Amazon
Save 23% – You know what it is by now: the open world crime simulator that has seen off every competitor it ever had. GTA 5 of course comes with access to GTA Online, which at this price is a very cheap way to swan around fake LA pretending you’re incredibly rich. And, unlikely as it sounds, to hear new music from Dr Dre.View Deal

Grand Theft Auto 5 Premium Edition (Xbox One): $29.99 $20.97 at Amazon
Save 30% – You know what it is by now: the open world crime simulator that has seen off every competitor it ever had. GTA 5 of course comes with access to GTA Online, which at this price is a very cheap way to swan around fake LA pretending you’re incredibly rich. And, unlikely as it sounds, to hear new music from Dr Dre.View Deal

UK deals

Grand Theft Auto 5 Premium Edition (Xbox One): £24.99 £12.97 at Amazon
Save 48% – You know what it is by now: the open world crime simulator that has seen off every competitor it ever had. GTA 5 of course comes with access to GTA Online, which at this price is a very cheap way to swan around fake LA pretending you’re incredibly rich. And, unlikely as it sounds, to hear new music from Dr Dre.View Deal

Grand Theft Auto 5 Premium Edition (PS4): £24.99 £13.95 at Amazon
Save 44% – You know what it is by now: the open world crime simulator that has seen off every competitor it ever had. GTA 5 of course comes with access to GTA Online, which at this price is a very cheap way to swan around fake LA pretending you’re incredibly rich. And, unlikely as it sounds, to hear new music from Dr Dre.View Deal

More GTA 5 deals

No matter where you live, you’ll find all the lowest prices for GTA 5 around the web right here, with offers available in your region. 

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