Grand Theft AutoV : the chase is on - Telegraph.co.uk

A sequel soon followed, but although the early titles were hits, the series hit its stride only in 2001 with the third outing on the then groundbreaking PlayStation 2. By this time the franchise was under the charge of Rockstar Games and the St Paul's-educated Sam and Dan Houser. The British brothers were cultural omnivores, and relished packing the game with film references and dark humour. Grand Theft Auto III was set in a parody of New York called Liberty City, and every 3D detail revealed both a love for the iconography of America and the gentle mocking of a cynical outsider. Satire became a key component of the GTA franchise.

Even if you weren't playing the games, the chances are you were reading about them (including the story of a six-year-old boy from Virginia who took his parents' car for a 10-mile spin before crashing into a telegraph pole: he told police he'd learnt to drive by playing Grand Theft Auto). Max Clifford is said to have helped orchestrate tabloid outrage at the first game, propelling GTA to the top of the charts. By the time of GTA III and its sequels Vice City and San Andreas (confusingly, not GTA IV or V), the controversy was potentially more damaging, with accusations that the series encouraged copycat crimes. Several lawsuits were brought against Rockstar; none was upheld.

The games have grown with the hardware on which they are played. For the last outing – now four years old – hundreds of designers pored over New York, photographing and recording everything from shopfronts to cloud formations. The game's script included thousands of lines of dialogue – every passer-by would have something to say. The Liberty City of Grand Theft Auto IV was a near photo-realistic depiction of modern urban America – brash, glamorous and sometimes very dangerous. For years, gamers had been urging outsiders to believe that their medium is an art form, comparable with cinema – Grand Theft Auto IV would be their prima facie evidence.

Within the gaming world, GTA is now an institution. The industry holds its breath for each new incarnation – when Grand Theft Auto V arrives, there will be midnight queues at shops; tabloid commentators will quite probably call for its withdrawal; rival publishers will pull their own titles away from the launch weekend, for fear of being entirely ignored. The details of the new game remain secret, but it's unlikely that Sam and Dan Houser, and their international production team of more than 1,000, will have sat still. You may not have heard of Los Santos, but soon millions of people will be spending a lot of time there.

'Grand Thieves and Tomb Raiders: How British Video Games Conquered the World', by Magnus Anderson and Rebecca Levene, is out now (Aurum Press)