Short answers, pulled from the story.
Grand Theft Auto was created by David Jones and Mike Dailly. Later titles were developed under the oversight of brothers Dan and Sam Houser, along with Leslie Benzies and Aaron Garbut. It is primarily developed by Rockstar North, formerly DMA Design, and published by Rockstar Games.
The Grand Theft Auto series has shipped almost 470 million units, making it one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time. Grand Theft Auto V alone has sales above 230 million.
The name Grand Theft Auto is a term for motor vehicle theft in the United States. The series centres on protagonists who rise through the criminal underworld, with gameplay focused on driving and shooting.
The first Grand Theft Auto game was released for MS-DOS and Windows in November 1997 by DMA Design. It was ported to the PlayStation in 1998 and the Game Boy Color in 1999.
According to The Guinness World Records 2008 and 2009 Gamer's Edition, Grand Theft Auto is the most controversial video game series in history, with over 4,000 articles published about it. Controversies include glamorising violence, the Hot Coffee minigame in San Andreas, and a torture mission in Grand Theft Auto V condemned by the charity Freedom from Torture.
Grand Theft Auto VI was officially announced in December 2023 and is set for release on the 19th of November 2026 for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. It returns to a version of Vice City based on Miami, set in the fictional state of Leonida.
Ray Liotta voiced the player character in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, the first game in the series with a speaking protagonist. Grand Theft Auto III featured Frank Vincent, Michael Madsen, and Kyle MacLachlan, while San Andreas included Samuel L. Jackson, Peter Fonda, and James Woods. Celebrities such as Lazlow Jones, Phil Collins, and Dr. Dre have appeared as themselves.