To mark the end of the 2010s, we’re celebrating 30 games that defined the last 10 years. You can find all the articles as they’re published in the Games of the Decade archive, and read about the thinking behind it in an editor’s blog.
Whilst now it feels like a foregone conclusion, back in 2013, GTA Online was an exciting gambit for Rockstar. The team had to design a world that players would want to leave the comforts of their legendary single-player narratives for. GTA 4’s online mode was a success, but it still amounted to a lonely city with an airport warzone and some rudimentary deathmatches.
At first, GTA Online seemed too ambitious. Wouldn’t too many RPG-wielding pre-teens spoil the proverbial pot? At launch, the sceptics were vindicated. In the game’s first few weeks, the experience was a disaster. I remember the vapid missions, rampant griefing and random loss of character data that kicked off Rockstar’s GTA Online reparations program, where players are still being gifted lump sums of apology money in exchange for putting up with bugs.
