10 Longest-Running Video Game Franchises With The MOST Quality
4. Grand Theft Auto
Looping back to the start again here, this entry could echo my Final Fantasy point which is to say ‘It’s GTA’ and then move on but let’s run it back. Run it over. With a car. Steal a car. Okay. Grand Theft Auto is in the upper echelon of the highest selling franchises of all time, ringing in at approximately 420 million units which is a giant and funny number.
Speaking of giant, funny, action-packed, surprisingly emotional, blockbuster franchises that define pretty much everything there is to love about video games, Grand Theft Auto has it all.
While its 1997 debut was a little light on opportunities to hunt down a sasquatch or hoon around with your friends causing mayhem, it was an important foundation to lay for the franchise. That foundation of course being the bugged line of code that caused cop cars to be way too aggressive and the coders who sat back and said “that’s hilarious, that should be a game.”
Money well spent then on the then trashed game ‘Race’n’Chase’, GTA was born in the most GTA way possible where good intentions would get out of the way to usher in chaos, things that go boom, and more stoic armed to the teeth protagonists than you can shake a shotty at.
The reason Grand Theft Auto is so special, though, is the bombastic and ridiculous action-adventure franchise sits in the deft hands of Rockstar known for their incredible attention to detail, world-building and complex characters.
So you get all the madness and all the substance all at the same time. Everybody’s happy. Except for all the NPCs you’re running down.