GTA creator David Jones reflects on Dundee-born game’s ‘unimaginable’ global success
- Andrew Batchelor
- 52 minutes ago
- 3 min read
The Dundee developer who helped create Grand Theft Auto has reflected on the extraordinary rise of the video game series, nearly 30 years after it began life in the city.
David Jones, founder of Dundee-based DMA Design and one of the driving forces behind the original Grand Theft Auto, has given a rare interview to LBC News as excitement continues to build around the release of Grand Theft Auto VI later this year.
Jones said the scale the franchise has reached would have been almost impossible to envisage when his team was developing the first GTA in Dundee during the 1990s.
At the time, selling around 10,000 copies could be considered a major achievement for a game, while developers often relied on handing out demo versions simply to persuade people to give a new title a chance.
Grand Theft Auto would ultimately become something far bigger. The original game was released in 1997 and helped establish the open-world, freeform style of gameplay which would become one of the defining genres of modern gaming.
Jones described GTA as a game which had the right foundations to continue evolving, with each generation significantly expanding on what came before.
Speaking about watching the franchise continue without him, Jones said its success was both exciting and humbling.
Having worked on more than 20 games during his career, he acknowledged there was never any guarantee during development that a particular title would become a hit - making GTA’s longevity and continued worldwide popularity all the more remarkable.
Jones also highlighted the impact Grand Theft Auto had far beyond the games themselves, particularly on Scotland.
He believes the success of the Dundee-created series helped put the country on the international gaming map, encouraging young people to consider careers in the industry and contributing to universities developing specialist games courses.
The ecosystem which followed also saw developers leave established studios to form companies of their own, something Jones said was actively encouraged.
Over subsequent decades, that network has helped Scotland develop into an internationally recognised centre for games development, with Dundee retaining particularly strong links to the industry that began flourishing in the city during the 1980s and 1990s.
DMA Design itself went through a series of ownership changes before eventually becoming Rockstar North. Rockstar now has a major presence in Scotland, including operations in both Edinburgh and Dundee.
Jones said he was proud of that legacy and of the much wider range of careers now available within game development, compared with an era when studios were largely built around programmers, artists and a small number of audio specialists.
The scale of GTA VI illustrates just how dramatically the industry has changed.
Jones suggested more than 2,000 people could now be involved with the project, compared with the considerably smaller teams which produced the early games in Dundee.
He described the number of highly specialised roles now required to create a blockbuster game as “phenomenal”.
Jones also played down the significance of GTA VI footage which appeared online ahead of Rockstar’s official extended showcase, arguing that the leaks were unlikely to matter once audiences saw the scale of the finished game.
Rockstar released its first extended look at GTA VI on August 27, featuring footage captured from the PlayStation 5 version of the game. GTA VI is currently scheduled for release on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on November 19, 2026.
Almost three decades after Dundee helped give birth to Grand Theft Auto, Jones’ comments underline the extraordinary distance the series - and Scotland’s wider games industry - has travelled. What began as an ambitious project from a Dundee studio has developed into one of entertainment’s most recognisable franchises, with its Scottish roots continuing to form an important part of that story.
