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Rockstar's crime epic took in around a billion dollars in its first three days, a figure comparable to the biggest openings in film. Games were now unambiguously a top-tier entertainment business.
Scale became the defining feature of the top of the market. A single release could out-earn a major film opening, which justified budgets and marketing campaigns that only a handful of companies could afford, and concentrated the blockbuster tier into fewer hands making fewer, larger bets.
A western epic about a fading outlaw gang sold enormously and drew praise for the density of its simulated world. Reporting on the long hours worked during production made working conditions a central industry conversation.
The release marked a peak of detailed world simulation and, at the same time, made the human cost of that scale a matter of public record. Discussion of production conditions moved from private industry knowledge to standard coverage of any major game.
