Grand Theft Auto (PS2 Era)

The era began with Grand Theft Auto III on October 23, 2001 — developed by DMA Design (soon renamed Rockstar North) and published by Rockstar Games. Set in Liberty City, a fictionalized New York, it became the best-selling game of 2001 in the US on its way to 14.5 million copies, and it's credited with popularizing 3D open-world sandbox design. Vice City followed in October 2002, then San Andreas in October 2004.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was the peak. Carl "CJ" Johnson — voiced by Young Maylay in his first acting role, opposite Samuel L. Jackson as the corrupt cop Tenpenny — moved through a fictional state modeled on California and Nevada, with three full cities: Los Santos, San Fierro, and Las Venturas. It sold 4.5 million copies in its first week ($235 million in US revenue), scored 95 on Metacritic, and became the best-selling PS2 game of all time: 17.33 million copies by 2009, 27.5 million counting every platform by 2011. The controversy never stopped either — violence panics, Australian bans, and the 2005 "Hot Coffee" scandal, when modders unearthed a hidden sex minigame in San Andreas and the ESRB re-rated it Adults Only until a patched version shipped.

The PS2 era closed when Grand Theft Auto IV moved the series to a new console generation on April 29, 2008. By then these three games had rewired expectations: the sandbox wasn't a gimmick, it was the point. Radio stations became mixtapes, cheat codes were traded at lunch tables, and a living city you could simply exist in became the blueprint for everything after.