The trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6, the latest in the groundbreaking game franchise, launched five days ago has 136 million views as of today. GTA 5 came out 10 years ago and has had astonishing longevity - it's still played as much today as it was then; it regularly appears at the top of streaming and sales charts, and the sequel is so hotly anticipated that trailers for the trailer were causing global newspaper headlines weeks ago.
The story of the GTA franchise is that of AAA games generally over the last 20 years. Budgets and development time have ballooned but so has the complexity and immersiveness of the products they create. If asked to reach for a character from popular culture a kid of twenty is as likely to cite Trevor from GTA V as, say, Thanos. So with the cost, personnel and cultural resonance aligning, and Marvel movies tanking at the box office, this seems as good a time as any to ask blockbuster games are threatening to overtake their movie equivalent as a key narrative and an artistic experience of our time.
