Smaller studios can create a higher number of games hoping for just a few to hit and recoup their total development costs. While a huge hit like Candy Crush Super Saga won't be bringing in a billion dollars in a month anytime soon, it also costs a fraction to make. While most mobile games fail to get traction, the huge user base of over a billion smartphone customers is too great an opportunity to ignore. On the other end, low-end development of cheaper games will continue growing. The financial risk of a new franchise with a huge budget is too great for most studios (not to mention only a handful have the resources to create games with such huge budgets), so a franchise like Grand Theft Auto that's a sure-fire hit can keep higher budgets, push the limit, and stand apart. With each successive console generation packing in more power, which enables larger worlds and more realistic graphics, the cost of pushing the limits grows higher. The end result of these megablockbuster games could be more concentration around the high and low-end of video games. That's quite an impressive sum when you consider Grand Theft Auto IV's $500 million in sales across a week was met with awe just five years ago. Top tier franchises such as Grand Theft Auto and Activision's (NASDAQ: ATVI) Call of Duty are battling to see which can hit a billion in sales the fastest. The video game industry is entering an interesting phase.
The fictional world of San Andreas where Grand Theft Auto 5 is set is so large the company introduced planes for travel across the map. Graphics once again got better and the gameplay world got bigger.
The success of Grand Theft Auto IV emboldened series developer Rockstar Games to push the envelope even further with its sequel. The biggest release in entertainment history Grand Theft Auto IV went on to notch $500 million in sales in its first week, beating expectations by a wide margin. Yet, the gamble on creating such an expensive and ambitious game paid off. At the time, that was among the highest ever development costs for a video game. It also cost more, with a reported development budget of $100 million. As a result, the game also took longer to create missing its initial launch date of October 2007. Graphics got better, maps got bigger, the already expansive "open world" premise behind Grand Theft Auto was taken to new extremes in the development of Grand Theft Auto IV. However, with the release of more powerful "next generation" consoles like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in 20, the series was overhauled to take advantage Grand Theft Auto's run of success is even more impressive when you consider three titles were released in such short time between 20. Re-booting for the newest generation of consoles Finally, in 2004, the final game of the GTA III era, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, hit and led to more than 27.5 million units sold. In the following year, Rockstar North developed Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, which went on to sell more than 17.5 million copies. The game took the video game world by storm, winning several "Game of the Year" awards on its way to selling more than 14.5 million copies. How has Grand Theft Auto become such a dominant franchise and what does its success say about the future of video games? Controversy leads to success While games like Candy Crush and Angry Birds have attracted most mainstream attention on video games in the past year and have users in the hundreds of millions, the success of Grand Theft Auto 5 is a pointed illustration that big budget console games - the game reportedly cost roughly $265 million to develop and market - still drive global video game sales. Compare that to this summer's biggest blockbuster at the box office, Iron Man 3, which brought in "only" $372 million in its first weekend across the globe.
17, the franchise moved beyond just being one of the biggest video game franchises in the world and set its sights on a larger crown becoming the world's most successful release across all of entertainment. In just its first three days after release, Grand Theft Auto 5 raked in more than $1 billion in sales. With the release of Grand Theft Auto 5 on Sept. Video games don't get much bigger than Take-Two Interactive's ( TTWO -0.11% ) Grand Theft Auto, otherwise known as GTA.