With Rockstar finally pulling back the curtain on the GTA 6 cover art, we thought we’d take a trip down memory lane and run through the history of the Grand Theft Auto franchise’s iconic cover art.
The first two Grand Theft Auto games are radically different from the rest of the franchise. They’re 2D, top-down action games with a much looser narrative than the later games in the series. However, the cover arts are also significantly different from the later games, as they feature a different style of logo, more realistic imagery, and zero characters from the game.
Grand Theft Auto 3 was a major leap for the franchise. Not only did it take GTA into its 3D era and define the formula for open-world games going forward, but it also set the tone artistically. Grand Theft Auto 3 introduced the Pricedown font (colloquially known as the GTA font) and the collage-style cover artwork, but the latter almost didn’t happen. The game originally had a cover art that was similar to an old-school action movie poster with a bunch of characters pointing guns, cool cars, explosions, and basically everything that makes GTA what it is.
However, everything changed after 9/11. The game was scheduled to be released on October 3, 2001, but the terrorist attack prompted Rockstar Games (which has an office in New York City) to delay the game by three weeks to make changes. Rockstar stripped out some dialogue, references to terrorism, and made alterations to some cosmetic details. Rockstar also felt that the original cover art was too intense and changed the entire design.
“The biggest change was the U.S. packaging, which remixed the previous packaging into what became our signature style – because the previous packaging [which was released as the cover of the game in Europe] was, we felt, too raw after 9/11,” said Rockstar Games in a blog post back in 2012.
In 2011, Rockstar Games co-founder and former GTA mastermind Dan Houser told Edge Magazine that the design was created in an evening by artist Stephen Bliss. The new look was inspired by a poster for The Thomas Crown Affair and laid the foundation for almost every GTA cover art going forward. The original cover art was still utilized in other regions, such as Europe, but things would become more in sync with the next game.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City helped solidify the collage artwork style and also created some patterns. Every GTA cover art since GTA Vice City has had a helicopter in the top left hand corner, a beautiful woman who often has very little clothing and is doing a sexually-charged pose, and a bike of some kind, though typically a motorcycle. Although Vice City’s cover art used the same style as GTA 3’s, the colors were far more vibrant to match the game’s Miami-inspired aesthetic.
Over half a decade later, GTA 4 set another new pattern by featuring the game’s protagonist on the cover. GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas don’t feature their protagonists, but IV puts Niko Bellic right at the top of the box art.. From here on out, all mainline Grand Theft Auto games prominently featured their protagonists.
Grand Theft Auto IV’s expansions got their own artwork, but they didn’t utilize the collage style until they were bundled together as one package, which was known as Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes from Liberty City. V largely stuck to the status quo, but V did shake up the logo a bit. Instead of a standard looking roman numeral, Rockstar added a little flair by writing out “five” across the roman numeral and designed the number to resemble a dollar, tying in with the game’s central concept of heists.
All of that leads us to 2026. Earlier today, Rockstar Games finally revealed the cover art for GTA 6, which utilizes the franchise’s classic style. There’s a helicopter in the upper left hand corner, a beautiful woman in a bikini, a motorcycle, some dangerous looking supporting characters, and of course, our beloved protagonists, Jason and Lucia.
We analyzed the artwork in an attempt to uncover every possible detail, which you can check out here. Rockstar also dropped a short new clip of Vice City to tide people over until the next trailer, and we’ve got 7 burning questions for the GTA 6 pre-order launch to tide you over.
GTA 6 releases on November 19 for Xbox Series X|S and PS5. Pre-orders open on June 25.
Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN’s news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.
