David Jones and Mike Dailly, the creators of the original Grand Theft Auto revealed that the controversies and public outcry that surrounded its launch were parts of a brilliant marketing campaign that took advantage of politicians and conservative media to make the game notorious.
"Max Clifford made it all happen," Mike Dailly one of the game’s creators reminisced.
Max Clifford is the infamous British publicist Max Clifford they hired to market the game. "He designed all the outcry, which pretty much guaranteed MPs would get involved... He'd do anything to keep the profile high."
Clifford’s controversial marketing campaign included planting stories and provoking conservative politicians and newspapers that would attack the game and give it free publicity inadvertently.
"He told us how he would play it, who he would target, what those people targeted would say," the other GTA creator, David Jones, added. "every word he said came true".
But the duo never intended for GTA to be a controversial game. "We knew why every decision was made, and we were never, ever influenced by 'let's do something to create a bit of controversy,'" explained Jones. "We always did everything from the perspective of what's going to be the most fun. It just naturally kept pushing us down the darker direction."