Grand Theft Auto 5's overwhelming commercial and critical successes have already secured it a place in gaming's hall of fame, but the real mark of greatness is being the muse of others. GTA 5 will undoubtedly go on to influence several other games in a multitude of ways — including the developers' next title, Red Dead Redemption 2 — however it's easy to forget that it's already influenced several major titles.
After all, who wouldn't want to replicate the game's sales figures? At over three years old, GTA 5 has shipped over 75 million copies worldwide not counting digital sales. Barely any games in the history of the industry can touch that metric, and GTA 5 is the best-selling non-bundled game of all time.
Imitation, as they say, is the highest form of flattery, and GTA 5 has already been flattered plenty. We're sure the game's mark will be noticeable in the industry for years to come, even more so than the influence of the other games in the franchise. It's even already begun with some titles picking up aspects of Rockstar's style and mechanics.
Among the first of the games which were influenced by Rockstar's blockbuster title was Fallout 4, the developers of which cited GTA 5 as inspiration for the measure of player freedom in their open-world post-apocalyptic RPG. Really, the two games don't have much in common thematically, and in terms of mechanics, the sandbox is also one of the only similarities. However, the way they both subvert linearity is emblematic.
While Fallout 4 hasn't fared as well among critics or players, being commonly accused of being shallow for an RPG, the world itself is a high point of the game. Provided you have the means to survive; you can explore it all at your own pace, discovering all kinds of hidden secrets and side quests scattered around the map. Much like how GTA 5 was filled with additional activities that you could do whenever, Fallout 4 invited you to stray from the beaten path and do things other than just the main questline.
Taking a step back and looking at the greater picture, the influence of the title reaches even further. GTA 5 is one of the best known and most iconic open world titles — a standard-bearer of the genre if you will. Incidentally, in recent years, there has been an unusual surge of open world titles appearing in the AAA sphere. Franchises that weren't open world before became open world.
Dragon Age: Inquisition comes to mind. The franchise really had no reason to make the transition to being open world, and the game suffered for it. But the devs did it anyway, and while we're not outright saying the reason was "because GTA 5 did it", it's hard to believe that it had zero effect on the decision — which likely came from the publisher, EA.






