The history of the Grand Theft Auto series is one that is marked by incredible innovation and mountains of controversy. The franchise has revolutionized the definition of an open-world game multiple times over ever since Grand Theft Auto 3 came out twenty years ago, and it's been built up as a titan of the industry. With great success, however, has come tremendous controversy surrounding the content of the games.
The Grand Theft Auto games are violent, almost every person that knows about video games can recognize that. They provide a certain level of lifelike simulation that is hard to come by in other games, but this doesn't mean that they are the only "violent" games that have ever been made. Regardless of this, the series has been scrutinized perhaps more than any other on the market. From censorships to outright bans, the controversies around Grand Theft Auto have become a pivotal aspect of the series.
GTA: San Andreas - Hot Coffee Mod
One of the most well-known moments of controversy for the series is the infamous Hot Coffee Mod for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. This mod allowed players to access a sexually explicit mini-game that was hidden in the game's source code. The mini-game was clearly not meant to be in the final version of San Andreas, and the exact content could have been much worse considering the playable character CJ and his girlfriend were fully clothed, but once it was discovered, the game fell under heavy scrutiny.
News of the mod made it all the way to the United States Congress, where some legislators wanted the game banned and publisher Take-Two held accountable. Although the mini-game was only accessible through hacking the game, the fact that it was left in the source code at all was enough for the ESRB to change the game's rating to Adult Only (AO). This led many retailers to pull the game from their shelves due to rules against selling AO rated games, and Rockstar eventually patched out the assets for the mini-game so San Andreas could regain its Mature (M) rating.
GTA 4 - Fight with New York
Before Grand Theft Auto 4 could even release, it received numerous complaints from New York City officials that didn't appreciate the violence and crime depicted in the game's version of New York, Liberty City. New York's mayor at the time, Michael Bloomberg, condemned the game but for a supposed feature it didn't have. Many people in the gaming community shot back at this criticism, saying how it was hypocritical for New York City officials to attack a video game for its depiction of the city, when films, TV, and literature have used New York as backdrops to crime stories numerous times in the past.
GTA 5 - The Torture Mission
The most recent entry in the Grand Theft Auto series, GTA 5 was subject to its fair share of controversy as well. The one part of the game that got the most attention was the mission "By the Book" where, as the protagonist Trevor Phillips, players were tasked with torturing a man. Among many other things, players are given the option to waterboard their victim, a choice made particularly controversial considering the CIA had infamously denied that waterboarding was not a form of torture during the game's development.
This moment in the game is rather graphic compared to the rest of what Grand Theft Auto 5 has to offer, causing many of the same people that were upset with the violence in previous entries to come back out of the woodwork. There were even some reviewers that saw the mission and thought that Rockstar had gone a little far this time around, but the scene still remains in most current versions of the game.
Grand Theft Auto is a staple series in the gaming world due to its interactivity and massive open worlds, but it's this level of interactivity that has caused some trouble for the franchise. There has been so much controversy around the games that at this point it is to be expected, and Rockstar hasn't given any indication of dialing things back for future entries. Although news on GTA 6 has been rather slim, it wouldn't be much of a surprise if it was as controversial as previous games.
Grand Theft Auto 6 is reportedly in development.