Grand Theft Auto 3, or GTA 3, was a video game designed by DMA Design and published by Rockstar Games in October 2001 for the PlayStation 2 video game console, and in November 2003 for the Xbox video game console. It was the third in the Grand Theft Auto series.
The player controlled a character who was never named, who started out as a local thug and rose in power as he worked with one of several rival crime gangs. The principal activity in the game was carjacking: the player would walk up to the side of a passing car and press a single button to yank the driver out of the car, get in, and start driving. Each car had its own particular performance characteristics, so a "Mafia Sentinel" car was much faster and able to corner much better than a minivan.
The player was able to go on missions (a strongarm mission to shake down a local business, beating up someone who insulted the gang boss, or assassinations, for example) in order to advance in the ranks of his gang, or he could just drive around the city, carjacking cars, running over pedestrians, and avoiding the police. If the player chose to carjack a taxi cab, taxi missions became available in which the player could accept fares and drop them off at different parts of the city; carjacking an ambulance let the player pick up injured people in the city (some of whom the player himself may have injured), and drive them to the hospital for a cash reward.
The game was remarkable for its depiction of what seemed to be a very large city with things happening all the time in different neighborhoods as the player drove around. Passing pedestrians and cars were not just cosmetic "flavor" for the environment, but were part of game play; the cars could be stolen and smashed, and pedestrians could be beaten up, robbed, killed, run over, or perhaps they might draw guns and attack the player, if they were part of a rival gang.
GTA 3 was a smash hit and became the #1 selling video game of 2001 in the United States. It continued to sell well at its US$49.95 price and went on to become the #2 selling video game of 2002. This was a remarkable achievement in an industry where most games suffer price discounts several months after their debut, and, despite this, experience strong drops in sales, as gamers have a strong tendency to purchase only the "next new thing".
GTA 3 was controversial because of its graphic content, and it generated a moral panic. The player is rewarded for stealing cars, running over pedestrians with cars, and murdering innocent people with a variety of weapons. One frequently cited allegation in the press was that in the game, players had to carjack a car, pick up a prostitute, have (implied) sex with the prostitute, then kill her and steal her money. It was indeed possible to do all these things, but the game did not require it of the player. Various critics hypothesized that if children were to play the game, they might acquire sociopathic attitudes toward others, and indeed several minors arrested for car theft in the United States claimed their motivation was derived from playing the game. It was because of GTA 3 that the Wal-Mart chain of retail stores announced that, for games rated "M" by the ESRB, the stores would begin checking the identification of purchasers who appeared to be under 18.
GTA 3's sequel, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, was released in October 2002 for PlayStation 2 and was the #1 selling video game of 2002. GTA: Vice City is more controversial than GTA 3.
