There’s arguably no more recognisable style of cover art than that of the Grand Theft Auto series. The panelled collection of images featuring characters and locations from each open world that has adorned each game box from 2001’s GTA 3 to the upcoming GTA 6 is etched into each of our minds. It all nearly looked completely different, though.

We spoke to Dan Houser, former VP at Rockstar and writer of almost all of the studio’s games from 1999 until 2018’s Red Dead Redemption 2, as part of our IGN30 Icons Series. When reminiscing about the developer’s most famous series, Grand Theft Auto, Houser shared how it felt to see elements of his creation permeate into the real world.

“GTA has become part of the wider cultural fabric,” he said. “I mean, you sort of saw that on YouTube clips and whatever else that would have the HUD on it, and people using the logo and things like that. When you go to any big tourist resort, you'll have a sort of GTA cover art-inspired T-shirt available. So you began to see that creep in 10 years ago, so I suppose.”

The bold, colourful style of that cover art came out of tragedy, though, as Houser revealed that the original look for GTA 3’s box had to be changed at the last minute due to the New York terror attack on September 11, 2011.

“What's funny is the cover art that became the iconic GTA cover art; Stephen Bliss did that in about two evenings because the old cover art was probably being too offensive to release after 9/11 because they were burning buildings in it,” Houser revealed.

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