Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto

David Kushner chronicles the wild, contentious rise of one of gaming's most divisive franchises, tracing Rockstar Games from scrappy upstart to cultural force. Behind Grand Theft Auto's revolutionary open-world design and blockbuster sales lies a story of creative obsession, legal battles, and relentless controversy. Accusations of glamorizing violence, political crusades from high-profile figures, and internal industry friction all converge around a small team determined to push interactive entertainment into territory no one had dared before.

Adam Verner proves a natural fit for the material, delivering Kushner's investigative prose with a dry, understated energy that suits the story's mix of corporate intrigue and countercultural defiance. His pacing keeps the behind-the-scenes drama moving without overselling it, letting the facts carry the weight. At under ten hours, the runtime is lean for a full franchise biography, making this a sharp listen for anyone curious how a game built on transgression became one of the most commercially dominant properties in entertainment history.