These were the first reactions to the first 'Grand Theft Auto' more than 20 years ago.

On May 20, 1997, a concerned Lord Campbell of Croy, a Scottish politician, submitted an inquiry to the British House of Lords about the government’s position on a computer video game which, although it would not be released until the end of the year, was already making negative headlines: “Is it true that, as they say, the game includes carjackings, hit-and-runs and police chases, and that there will be nothing to stop children buying it? Yes, it was the first edition of ‘Grand Theft Auto’.

We may now be used to this kind of reaction from certain groups, but the truth is that at that time a great debate arose at international level. It was not the first time: in 1993 two other video games (‘Mortal Kombat’ and ‘Night Trap’) became protagonists and made American politicians establish regulations and age rating. However, the case of ‘Grand Theft Auto’ was different: as we would later learn, it was all an elaborate marketing campaign.

Controversy as marketing

In 2012, and in the book ‘Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto’, writer David Kushner offered a somewhat different version to the one we knew. In Wired they published one of the first chapters, explaining how BMG Interactive, the company that owned the rights to the video game and would later become Rockstar North, made the decision to hire Max Clifford, one of the best-known publicists who had already worked with many blue-chip clients, mostly musicians.

Clifford devised an unconventional strategy to get the word out: not to hide the violence and the more controversial aspects of the video game, but to use them so that everyone would hear about it. Kushner mentions in his book how the publicist went so far as to say that he would tell the game’s plot to a politician and that, within three months, the issue would become a national controversy. It did, and they even went so far as to use part of the House of Lords debate as a radio advertisement.

By the end of that year, the Daily Mail was already reporting in its newspaper about a new video game that “encourages players to steal cars and run over pedestrians”, while at the same time claiming that some traffic associations, politicians and consumer groups were calling for it to be banned. The video game went on sale only to players aged 18 and over, and the tabloids filled the pages for weeks. They had succeeded.

Controversy also in the rest of the world

In Brazil, at the end of the 1990s, the most controversial video games were banned outright. In 1997, with the excuse of “administrative decisions in defense of consumer rights”, the Consumer Defense Protection Department ordered the withdrawal of the game ‘Carmageddon’ from sale. A year later, it was the turn of ‘Grand Theft Auto’, which was considered harmful to society.

In Australia, they did not ban it, but they studied it after the commotion generated by the launch and issued a statement on the matter. The OFLC, the Australian agency in charge of age rating, decided to take no action beyond banning its sale to children under 15. The reason? When viewed from above, the lack of detail and realism “reduce the impact of the game’s concepts and violence”.

Unfortunately, since at that time many media did not have digital versions yet, or if they did, they did not keep an archive, it is hard to find more references to the controversial release. We have found three reviews (one from Gamespot, another from IGN and this one in Spanish from MeriStation) and we recommend you to take a look at the Amazon reviews, which also date back to that time.

It’s striking that those reviews mention that “‘GTA’ is a good game that is highly recommended at a bargain price, but it won’t win any awards” (in GameSpot’s) and that “‘Grand Theft Auto’ is a fun game, but you may find yourself saying out loud to yourself, “Hey, why didn’t they fix that?” Not a good sign for a game that has so much potential” (IGN).

Much has rained since then, to the point where what started out as a saga shrouded in controversy has become one of the most popular in the world.The proof? We have it in 2004, 2005 and 2013, when ‘GTA San Andreas’, ‘GTA IV’ and ‘GTA V’ took the award for best game of the year.

The beginning of one of the most popular sagas in history.

Last December 14, 2017 marked 20 years since the PlayStation version of the game saw the light of day in Europe and, since then, the saga has not stopped growing. According to figures from January 2020, more than 270 million copies of ‘GTAs’ have already been distributed which, according to this ranking, places the franchise in seventh place of the best-selling to date, falling behind ‘Mario’, ‘Pokémon’, ‘FIFA’ and ‘Call of Duty’. Who would have thought it to British politicians.

Today ‘GTA’ is one of the most popular franchises. In the absence of knowing when the expected ‘GTA VI’ will be released, the current title continues to be talked about. So much so that it was released in 2013 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, then remastered for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and a version for PlayStation 5 and Xbox X|S Series is expected for the second half of 2021. It is, by the way, the most expensive game in history ($256 million), although it hasn’t been a problem for Rockstar, which on launch day alone grossed a whopping $800 million.

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Image | GTA Wikia