A police car in the first Grand Theft Auto will ram you off the road, and it was never meant to. Gary Penn, who worked on the game at BMG and DMA, wrote in 2004 that the police were “less believable than the Keystone variety” until they were “dumbed down” and “accidentally became overly aggressive”, because they were trying to drive through everything. Suddenly they paid attention to the player. That accident is part of how a struggling cops-and-robbers driving game from DMA Design in Dundee became Grand Theft Auto: three cities seen from above, any car on the street yours to steal, and a series that has now sold nearly 475 million copies.
Fast facts
- Developer: DMA Design, Dundee. Keith Hamilton was the team leader.
- Publisher: BMG Interactive.
- Released: late 1997 for the PC, followed by the PlayStation. Edge reviewed the PC version in December 1997 at £40.
- Working title: Race’n’Chase.
- Reception: nine out of ten in Edge; 92% in PC Zone.
Race’n’Chase
The game began, Penn wrote, with “the technology to enable a distinctive viewpoint”, a camera looking straight down on a city, and from that came the idea of playing cops and robbers. “The title, Race ‘n’ Chase, accurately reflected the content: more Pac-Man than the Elite or Mercenary it was to become.” He called its development “design by democracy”: a large group of young developers “making it all up as they went along”, with ideas and people coming and going. By Penn’s account the software crashed after five minutes of play for a year, and the publisher’s American office nearly cancelled it. At the end of 1996 the team tightened the design and replaced the handling of the cars, which until then had felt like “shopping trolleys with three remaining wheels”. When the game finally ran for more than five minutes, “it looked revolting”, he wrote, “but it was actually … almost compelling to play”.
By January 1997 Edge’s studio visit could describe a game about stealing cars and causing havoc in three American cities, with missions from a crime boss that players could take or ignore. Edge already expected trouble with the “videogame violence” debate in Britain.
Three cities
The player starts as a small-time criminal and works up through the underworld. There are three cities, each based on a real one: Liberty City (New York), San Andreas (San Francisco) and Vice City (Miami). Edge reported a claimed 6,000 scaled miles of road, and the box came with a paper map of each city. Each city has two chapters, such as “Mandarin Mayhem” for the Chinese Mafia and “Bent Cop Blues” for a corrupt drug squad officer. Jobs come by ringing public phones or over the pager, but the player never has to take them: every crime scores points, and a million dollars moves the player on to the next chapter. Stolen cars could even be sold at the docks, where Edge noted an immaculate Viper was worth $18,000.
The police watch everything. Computer and Video Games described a bar of police heads at the top of the screen: one head brought a single squad car, three meant roadblocks on the bridges, and four was “like Smokey and the Bandit”. A trip to a paint shop for a respray and new number plates made the problem go away. Run someone over, and the ambulance comes; start a fire, and the fire engine arrives, ready to be stolen too. The music changed with the car the player was driving, and Edge counted 60 minutes of funk, techno, hip-hop, rock and country.
“We’re fed up with cutesy, kiddy, patronising games,” Keith Hamilton told Edge before release. “Why should a game marked for an adult audience not have mature content?”
Max Clifford and the headlines
Near the end of development BMG hired the publicist Max Clifford. Brian Baglow, DMA’s and then Rockstar’s PR manager, wrote in 1999 that it was “thanks to him” that GTA was all over the national press, from the Daily Express (“Ban This Sick Filth!”) to the News of the World. Arcade described the method in 1999: a journalist rang a peer early in the morning, fed him a lurid description of the game and waited for the outrage. Clifford also organised a stunt in which 11- and 12-year-olds bought 18-rated games in shops, which became a front-page story in The Sunday Times. Clifford admitted he had never played the game. “All I know about Grand Theft Auto is that people who regularly play games have said it is good,” he told Arcade.
The press release had done its part too. PC Gamer quoted it: players would want to drive into “fat, popcorn-munching families”, and “in GTA it’s not just possible — it’s mandatory”. The game carried an 18 certificate in Britain; in Australia the classification board gave it a 15. Lord Campbell of Croy said it was “converting criminal offences into games”.
Reviews and sales
The reviews were strong. Edge gave the PC version nine out of ten and praised “the level of realism and attention to detail … Never before has the sense of being in a living city with other drivers and pedestrians going about their own business been so admirably conveyed.” It saw “the same levels of originality first witnessed in its Lemmings series”. PC Zone gave it 92%. Computer and Video Games found the PlayStation version slower and jerkier than the PC game with a 3D card, but still urged readers to play it.
The sales figures come from people with an interest in them, and grew with time:
- February 1998: two PlayStation copies of GTA in the British top 20 (Computer and Video Games’ chart).
- May 1999: an advertisement for the London 1969 add-on called GTA “million selling”.
- July 1999: Baglow wrote that GTA “reached number one and has so far spent almost 80 weeks in the top 20”.
- December 2004: Penn wrote that it “went on to sell over three million worldwide”.
None of these sources says how the copies were counted.
The series
Grand Theft Auto had two mission packs set in London, London 1969 (1999) and London 1961, and a sequel, Grand Theft Auto 2, late in 1999, under Take-Two’s new Rockstar Games label. Take-Two had bought BMG’s games business and then DMA itself. Grand Theft Auto III (2001) moved the series into 3D, and DMA, renamed Rockstar North, followed it with Vice City (2002), San Andreas (2004), GTA IV (2008) and GTA V (2013). The handheld Chinatown Wars (2009) went back to a view from above. Take-Two reported in August 2026 that GTA V had sold more than 230 million copies and the series nearly 475 million. Grand Theft Auto VI is due on 19 November 2026.
Sources
- Edge issue 41, January 1997, pp. 52–58: DMA Design studio visit (the game in development; violence “a contentious issue in Britain”).
- Edge issue 50, October 1997: news (“late November”) and preview (Keith Hamilton’s quote).
- Edge issue 52, December 1997: review (nine out of ten; the three cities, 6,000 miles, the chapters, the $18,000 Viper, the music; PC and PlayStation; BMG Interactive; £40).
- Computer and Video Games issue 193, December 1997: PC review (the wanted level; the respray).
- Computer and Video Games issue 195, February 1998: PlayStation review (the differences from the PC game) and UK chart.
- PC Gamer issue 53, February 1998, pp. 53–55: “A–Z of censorship” (the press release; 18 in Britain, 15 in Australia; Lord Campbell of Croy).
- Arcade issue 4, March 1999, pp. 84–85: “Taking the piss” (Max Clifford’s campaign and quotes).
- PC Zone issue 76, May 1999: Grand Theft Auto: London 1969 advertisement (“million selling”).
- Edge issue 73, July 1999: Brian Baglow, “The trials of a rock’n’roll games publisher: part one” (number one; almost 80 weeks in the top 20).
- PC Zone issue 80, September 1999: GTA 2 preview (GTA scored 92% in PC Zone issue 58; Max Clifford).
- Edge issue 78, November 1999, pp. 107–108: Brian Baglow, “The trials of a rock’n’roll games publisher: part six” (Max Clifford; the headlines).
- PC Zone issue 73, February 1999: “BMG (now part of Take 2)”. PC Zone issue 83, December 1999: Take-Two buys DMA Design.
- Edge issue 143, December 2004: Gary Penn, “Being there at GTA’s beginning” (Race ‘n’ Chase; the development; the police; “over three million”; Penn’s time at BMG and DMA).
- “GTA V surpasses 230 million sales months before GTA VI touches down”, Game Developer, 7 August 2026 (web, secondary).
- “Grand Theft Auto”, Wikipedia: the mission packs and later games (web, secondary).