Grand Theft Autois one of the biggest series in the world, with its name recognition extending far beyond the gaming sphere. The series, which is built on the freewheeling, car-stealing gameplay of the title, has grown over the years into an immensely popular satirical depiction of the USA that even resonates with those it’s poking fun at.
However, the series was created in Scotland, and the Edinburgh-based studio Rockstar North is still the main developer to this day withGTA 6. The satirical depiction of the USA was a joke about the American Dream from the first outing, and even as the most patriotic fans continue to await the next entry’s launch, it remains a joke about American culture.
It All Started With Lemmings And Cars
Dave Jones, one of the founders of DMA Design (originally Acme Software), was a developer from Dundee who particularly loved cars. He created a few humbly successful independent games, the first of which was Menace in 1988. Later on, as the team continued to experiment with the tech available to them, they created Lemmings - a wildly popular and significant game in video game history.
However, Jones wanted to create a virtual city, a world that felt alive. After debating ideas about gang wars and a Godzilla-like dinosaur to rampage through the buildings, his love for cars led to a city-based game that would give you the freedom to drive around in cars that each had a distinct feeling to them. With this, the team also wanted to play with the idea that, instead of going after bad guys, you played as the bad guy - and Grand Theft Auto was born.
The first GTA was released in 1997 on PC and the original PlayStation, and as of 1999, DMA Design became a part of Rockstar Games, a label created in 1998. Jones parted ways with DMA Design in 2000, and then in 2002, the studio was rebranded to Rockstar North, who are known now for their work on Manhunt and the GTA series. Even today, whileRockstar Gamesis the New York-based label everyone knows, with studios spanning various countries, Scotland’s own Rockstar North remains the originator of GTA, and the core developers of the series today.
Rockstar North Has The USA Laughing At Themselves
This isn’t a bad thing, either. Being able to laugh at yourself is a fantastic trait, whether or not you realise that’s what’s happening, and without such a satirical depiction of the ‘main character’ of countries, I feel it’d seem a whole lot scarier.
With fictional versions of various cities across the US, including Liberty City (New York), Vice City (Miami), and Los Santos (LA), the series continues to exaggerate American culture in a way that pokes fun at companies, capitalism, advertising, celebrities, social media, music, entertainment, and of course, the American people. It’s not malicious, and ends up making fun of a wide array of elements from the USA, but also the extended state of the world.As such, the series has garnered worldwide appeal for its satire, and that age-old freedom the game was designed to give you way back in 1997 - steal cars, get rich, and be the ‘bad guy’.
But whether we’re looking at the foundations of the series that still exist now, or seeing how far storytelling, graphics, and just how much the USA continues to provide that we can be satirical about, it all dates back to the town of Dundee, and now Edinburgh, on a small island thousands of miles from North America. Grand Theft Auto is a worldwide phenomenon, and one that, despite Rockstar Games’ New York-based worldwide label, is a proud export of Scottish invention.
