After the release of Grand Theft Auto V, its online popularity remained extremely high, and American players in particular showed exceptional enthusiasm for the game.
Perhaps this was because the game's story background itself was set in the United States, modeled after Los Angeles—a famous American city—giving American players a strong sense of familiarity.
On the first day, including preorders, total sales across all platforms reached seven million copies, with more than half of those sales coming from the U.S. alone.
The figure of seven million was displayed in real time on the official website of the Battle.net platform, making it the most authoritative data available.
This number was also something Gamestar Electronic Entertainment deliberately showcased—to make competitors feel a little uncomfortable.
Just imagining how awful it felt for them was enough.
Companies like Mikuf were especially affected.
After competing with Gamestar Electronic Entertainment for so long, a single one of their games now matched the combined sales of several of Mikuf's most popular titles.
The Mikuf team felt sick just looking at it.
But purely from a game developer's perspective, all they could feel toward this game was admiration and respect.
Gamestar Electronic Entertainment's team cohesion was unquestionably strong.
At the same time, their technology was also the most advanced in the industry.
Not to mention that the vast majority of game studios on the market were using the Unreal Engine developed by Gamestar Electronic Entertainment.
With this title, Gamestar Electronic Entertainment once again achieved numerous technical breakthroughs.
The number of destructible environments in the game increased severalfold compared to before, yet thanks to new programming techniques and AI computation methods, the game's file size didn't grow by much.
Many game companies wracked their brains trying to figure out exactly how some of these features were implemented.
What was somewhat reassuring was that Gamestar Electronic Entertainment didn't hoard its technology.
They maintained their technological lead, but they were also generous in integrating certain advancements directly into the Unreal Engine, making them available to developers.
Of course, others had to wait—new technologies always had to let Gamestar Electronic Entertainment reap the first wave of benefits.
Within the game industry, the release of GTA V caused a major stir. Players were completely hooked, as if they had never played such an outstanding open-world game before.
According to Gamestar Electronic Entertainment's statistics, GTA V brought in a large number of new players.
Most of these newcomers were American players.
Beyond that, GTA V also sparked widespread social discussion.
Previously, many games had only lightly touched on real-world issues.
After this release, articles analyzing the story of GTA V began appearing online.
One such article stood out in particular because of its author: a former U.S. special forces member who had received numerous honors and once held classified positions.
Now in his sixties, he had become deeply obsessed with video games after discovering them in his forties.
The article's title was provocative and eye-catching from the start:
"GTA V: America's Fig Leaf Torn Away by Japan"
"…In GTA V, I can personally attest to one thing for everyone who's played it: the two government agencies depicted there really are capable of doing the things shown in the game—and possibly even worse. I myself once held certain positions and therefore know quite a bit. I can't say too much, but you're free to imagine based on the game's story."
Once this former special forces member published his article, the scope of discussion immediately expanded.
Anyone with a reasonably sound mind could tell which two real-world agencies the game was referencing.
As a result, some Americans began to panic.
Was it really that bad? Had they elected such rotten people? When did the American spirit start to rot away?
The two U.S. government agencies reacted quickly, dispatching spokespeople to condemn the game as irresponsible.
They insisted they had never done such things and were being unfairly smeared, claiming they had always faithfully fulfilled their duties.
Hardly anyone believed them.
Because those two agencies already had a history.
Previously, no one had paid much attention to it—but once GTA V's influence grew, people with too much free time seriously began digging up their old scandals.
Whether due to honesty or stupidity, those agencies hadn't deleted or suppressed that past dirt, allowing it to spread freely.
That left them in an extremely passive position.
With this evidence circulating, even more people stopped believing anything those agencies said.
At the same time, independent U.S. TV stations adopted a "watch the chaos burn" attitude.
They launched live streams that repeatedly showcased in-game content mocking the two agencies.
Anything that made the agencies look bad was fair game.
It drew massive attention to their channels, which in turn attracted more capital.
They didn't care what happened to those government agencies in the end—they just wanted the clicks and profits.
The general public's mindset was even simpler: they just wanted to see blood spill.
As for changing reality? That seemed unlikely.
A single game could never change the real world—at best, it could give people a moment of clarity.
So these guys have such a dark side. Guess we shouldn't trust them so easily anymore.
That was enough.
Games only needed to bring people enjoyment.
And this release also brought an unexpected bonus.
Many players started GTA V, and upon seeing the number "5," naturally grew curious about the earlier entries.
What confused them slightly was that the GTA series had never followed a strict numerical order.
Earlier titles used subtitles—GTA: San Andreas, GTA: Episodes from Liberty City—and then suddenly the newest entry was called GTA V.
This left many new players baffled, completely unsure why the naming was so strange.
Veteran players, however, were unfazed.
Gamestar Electronic Entertainment skipping a "Part 2" and jumping straight to "Part 3" had long been standard practice.
Expecting them to follow conventional rules was unrealistic.
And while new players were confused, they still obediently opened their wallets and bought the earlier GTA titles.
If GTA V was this good, they naturally wanted to see what the previous games were like.
Perfect timing, too—the GTA series launched a discount campaign, making new players even more willing to buy.
As a result, sales of the earlier entries surged over the past few days, with each title selling over one million copies within a month—an unexpected but welcome surprise.