GTA games in order: Release and story timeline

radiotimes.com:

Originally hailing from sunny Dundee, Grand Theft Auto was the brainchild of Lemmings developer DMA Design and to commemorate this journey, we’ve organised the GTA games in order with a release and story timeline.

Despite already having massive success with the excellent puzzle-strategy series – the Taysiders knew they had struck gold with GTA and ran with it. They haven’t stopped since, and have provided some of the biggest and best games ever made.

Originally the games were top-down 2.5D affairs, but they yet again changed the industry as we know it with 2001's Grand Theft Auto 3, which brought the series quite literally down to earth as the player was much closer to the action in its new third-person guise ushering the beginning of what is now known as the 3D timeline. Also new was the cinematic storytelling, with top-notch voice acting which has been a series staple ever since.

In 2002, DMA Design became Rockstar North as we still know it today and went on to produce Vice City and San Andreas with a few spin-offs for the handhelds of the day, the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable.

In 2008, the 3D timeline came to an end and the HD began with Grand Theft Auto 4. We’re still in this HD era as the only other mainline GTA entry has been 2013’s Grand Theft Auto 5 which has seen an innumerable amount of versions released across three console generations. The next outing in this timeline will be the much-anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6.

Though Rockstar has been famous for their technically sound games with excellent production values – the company misstepped with 2021’s Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition. Helmed by Grove Street Games, the game was panned at launch for its numerous glitches and bizarre