To the folks at three-year-old Rockstar Games, whose other outlaw hits include Smuggler’s Run, Midnight Club Street Racing and the hard-boiled cop thriller Max Payne, the runaway success of GTA3 is proof that the 12-year-olds who grew up on Mario are looking for something very different now that they’re in their 20s: games whose look, feel and sound are drawn from the edgy movies, comic books and music that reflect a twentysomething’s interests. But fans aren’t just responding to the game’s racy trappings; they’re also getting a kick out of the wide range of behavior it allows. “It’s brilliant,” says Steve Kent, the 41-year-old author of “The Ultimate History of Video Games” and the parent of two young kids whom he lets nowhere near GTA3. “They put together a great game, then layered the offensive stuff on top of it. If Tarantino or Scorsese made a game, this would be it.”
Rockstar’s certainly on to something: since its October 2001 release, GTA3 has sold nearly 3 million copies at $50 a pop. And Hollywood is noticing. New Line and Miramax have bought film rights to games from Rockstar, and more deals are in the works.
To some parents and politicians, GTA3 may seem like just another sign that the apocalypse is upon us. In a statement Sen. Joe Lieberman said, “Games like Grand Theft Auto are particularly troubling because they go beyond just celebrating violence generally, and actually reward players for engaging in organized crime, murdering innocent people and other forms of perverse, antisocial behavior.” Rockstar COO Terry Donovan stresses that the game is rated M (for Mature, suitable for people 17 and older) and that the company’s marketing isn’t aimed at children. But that doesn’t stop enterprising youngsters from getting GTA3; 16-year-old Los Angeleno Mike Garakian scored a copy from the local Electronics Boutique, no questions asked. “At first I thought my parents would freak out, but they didn’t mind,” he says. “The media has talked a lot about the violence, but that’s not what makes it great.”
Demographics account for some of GTA3’s success. Console-game owners are refusing to put away childish things as they get older. On the original PlayStation the sweet spot of the market was 8 to 17, and none of the 10 biggest hits was M-rated. But for PlayStation 2, the key demographic has become 18- to 34-year-olds. Six of last year’s top 20 PS2 games were M-rated–two from Rockstar alone. Some industry veterans believe that the growing popularity of M-rated games will affect the tastes of young gamers. Naughty Dog cofounder Jason Rubin, best known for his all-ages PlayStation hit franchise Crash Bandicoot, believes that his latest all-ages game missed the mass market because of this demographic shift. “We’ve opened up Pandora’s box with these games,” says Rubin, citing informal surveys showing that some kids as young as 12 want to play GTA3, and that 7-year-olds aren’t responding as strongly to the colorful mascot games that powered the original PlayStation. “Looking ahead, videogames may not return to the children’s era.” If Rubin is correct, Rockstar will have done a drive-by on Mario, Crash Bandicoot and the videogame industry as we know it.
