Tuesday, September 17, 2013 marks both the beginning and the end of an era in gaming. Owners of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 can finally get their hands on Grand Theft Auto V, a game that has been hyped for several months now. Most reviews of this newest entry in the series have been positive, praising the massive in-game sandbox environment that the series’ developer Rockstar has also used in games like Red Dead Redemption, along with a diverse cast of characters that includes three playable protagonists of different ages and backgrounds, along with a variety of different people and personalities within the fictional city of Los Santos (loosely based on Los Angeles). The influence of popular cable shows like The Wire and Breaking Bad is strongly evident in the game’s overall presentation. Facial expressions, character movements, and environments look stunningly realistic—even moreso than we’ve come to expect from contemporary video games.
To the chagrin of some die-hard gamers, Grand Theft Auto V will not be ported to the PC for at least another six months, despite the fact that, according to the International Business Times, the current-gen console versions could sell at least 6.5 million copies by the end of day one.
In addition to an as-yet unreleased PC edition of the game, versions for Microsoft’s Xbox One and Sony’s PlayStation 4 are expected to appear on the market once those systems launch within the next year. Just as with the release of the 2006 action-shooter Black on the PlayStation 2 and original Xbox, GTA V is being touted as one of the last great games of the current console generation. Black was a precursor to what would come in the next console generation, featuring a more cinematic style of gameplay that would become a strong feature of games like L.A. Noire. With an up to 60-hour play cycle and an array of new features, it is evident that GTA V will forecast things to come for next year and beyond.
However, gaming has changed greatly since 2006 and the debut of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. In a certain sense, console games like the GTA series are less relevant due to the rise of “social” gaming across different media platforms such as mobile and iOS. Like the aforementioned Breaking Bad, video games that are as popular as the Grand Theft Auto series are becoming transmedia powerhouses—franchises that appeal to a wide variety of consumers by incorporating elements of different media formats to tell a unified narrative. What we’ll see in the next generation of games is anyone’s guess, but it is certain that we have already entered a very exciting and memorable time where a video game can generate just as much buzz as the newest popular film, crossing genres and demographics while creating a new and exciting macro-medium that encompasses all that came before.
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