Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto

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Wiley, Apr 3, 2012 - Games & Activities - 304 pages
2 Reviews
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Inside the making of a videogame that defined a generation: Grand Theft Auto

Grand Theft Auto is one of the biggest and most controversial videogame franchises of all time. Since its first release in 1997, GTA has pioneered the use of everything from 3D graphics to the voices of top Hollywood actors and repeatedly transformed the world of gaming. Despite its incredible innovations in the $75 billion game industry, it has also been a lightning rod of debate, spawning accusations of ethnic and sexual discrimination, glamorizing violence, and inciting real-life crimes. Jacked tells the turbulent and mostly unknown story of GTA's wildly ambitious creators, Rockstar Games, the invention and evolution of the franchise, and the cultural and political backlash it has provoked.

  • Explains how British prep school brothers Sam and Dan Houser took their dream of fame, fortune, and the glamor of American pop culture and transformed it into a worldwide videogame blockbuster
  • Written by David Kushner, author of Masters of Doom and a top journalist on gaming, and drawn from over ten years of interviews and research, including firsthand knowledge of Grand Theft Auto's creators and detractors
  • Offers inside details on key episodes in the development of the series, including the financial turmoil of Rockstar games, the infamous "Hot Coffee" sex mini-game incident, and more

Whether you love Grand Theft Auto or hate it, or just want to understand the defining entertainment product of a generation, you'll want to read Jacked and get the real story behind this boundary-pushing game.

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LibraryThing Review

User Review  - bdgamer - LibraryThing

I've been a fan of GTA since Vice City, so this book was very interesting for me. It chronicles the franchise's and Rockstar's rise from obscurity to the mainstream titans they are now. The best part ... Read full review

About the author (2012)

DAVID KUSHNER is the author of Masters of Doom, voted the best videogame book of all time by Game Informer magazine, as well as Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids, and Levittown. A contributing editor at Rolling Stone, Kushner has written for publications including Vanity Fair, Wired, New York Times Magazine, New York, GQ, and Details. He served as the digital culture commentator for National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Sunday. He has been included in The Best American Crime Reporting and is an adjunct professor of journalism at New York University.

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