Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a 2004 open world action-adventure video game developed by Rockstar North in the United Kingdom and published by Rockstar Games. A sequel to the successful title Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002), San Andreas is the third 3D game in the Grand Theft Auto series, the fifth original console release and eighth game overall. Originally released for the PlayStation 2 in October 2004, the game has since been released for the Xbox and Microsoft Windows in June 2005, the Xbox Live Marketplace for the Xbox 360 in October 2008, and the PlayStation Store via PSN for the PlayStation 3 in December 2012. It was made available on Steam on January 4, 2008,[5] and on Intel-based Macs running a minimum of Mac OS X 10.6.6 in September 2011. The game was succeeded by Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories in 2005.
Expanding the size of the in-game map from previous GTA titles, GTA: San Andreas is set in the semi-fictional state of San Andreas (based on California and Nevada) and its three metropolitan cities: Los Santos (based on Los Angeles), San Fierro (based on San Francisco), and Las Venturas (based on Las Vegas). Set in 1992,[6] the game revolves around the gang member Carl "CJ" Johnson returning home to Los Santos after learning of his mother's murder. CJ finds his old friends and family in disarray, and over the course of the game, he tries to re-establish his old gang, the Grove Street Families, clashes with corrupt cops, and gradually unravels the truth behind his mother's murder. The plot is based on multiple real-life events in Los Angeles, including the rivalry between the Bloods and Crips street gangs, the crack epidemic, the LAPD Rampart scandal, and the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Like other games in the series, GTA: San Andreas is composed of elements from driving games and third-person shooters, and features open world gameplay, in which players can interact with the game world at their leisure. The game introduced several gameplay elements to the series, including gang wars, car tuning, and extensive player customization.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas received wide critical acclaim and sold well on all platforms for which it was released. According to review aggregator website Metacritic, the game was the fifth-highest-rated release for the PlayStation 2. With over 17.33 million copies of the game sold for the PlayStation 2, it is the console's best-selling game. As of 2011, the game has sold 27.5 million copies worldwide. Like previous entries in the GTA series, San Andreas was highly controversial for its violent and sexual content. The game was briefly re-rated in 2005 by the Entertainment Software Rating Board as "Adults Only" after a player-made software patch, dubbed the "Hot Coffee mod", unlocked a previously hidden sexual minigame. Subsequent re-releases removed the content and retained the game's original "Mature" rating.