Trendsetters: The 10 Most Significant Games
8/26/2008 6:16 PM | 9 Comments | Page 4 of 10
Grand Theft Auto III(Rockstar Games, PlayStation 2 -- the other versions do not matter from this perspective, 2001)
Grand Theft Auto III's inclusion on this list does not reflect the violent content, the incredible sales, or even the controversy it inspired. Pure and simple,
GTA3's main significance is that it did nothing short of redefining the demographics of gaming.
When Nintendo re-launched the U.S. games business in 1985, gamers were mostly kids in the fifth and sixth grade. SEGA took games into high schools with Genesis. And there things stayed. There was a lot of talk about Sony raising the age of gamers with PlayStation, and PlayStation unquestionably removed the geeky vibe videogames had among college students.
The first
Grand Theft Auto was every bit as violent as
GTA3, but it was played from the top-down view.
Postal was more violent. Both games made news but had little lasting impact on gaming.
Grand Theft Auto 3 changed things. First of all, running on PlayStation 2,
GTA3 took players out of the skies and placed them on street level. It was immersive. It was cinematic. It had great voice acting and a story. You didn't look down on the world, you were inside it, and the world was corrupt and dangerous and filled with things to do.
Not since
Super Mario Bros. had any game redefined the gaming audience so successfully. With
GTA3, the hotspot of the market shifted from teens to men in their 20s.
As a side note,
Grand Theft Auto 3,
Vice City and
San Andreas have come close to tying the sales record for non-packed-in games set by
Super Mario 3. They also gave PlayStation 2 a huge leg up on the competition.
