San Andreas ships an entire state
Three cities, a countryside between them, and a third of a publisher's revenue
Quick facts
- Released
- Late October 2004, PlayStation 2
- Setting
- The state of San Andreas, 1992
- Franchise share of Take-Two revenue, FY2004
- 34.3%
What happened
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas arrived for the PlayStation 2 in late October 2004 and stretched the open world from a city to a state: three cities modeled on Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Las Vegas, with deserts and small towns between them, wrapped around the story of CJ returning home to a 1992 Los Santos. IGN's review ran on 25 October. Take-Two's annual report for the fiscal year records what the franchise had become: Grand Theft Auto titles, led by San Andreas, accounted for 34.3 percent of the entire company's revenue.
Why it matters
San Andreas was the top-down Dundee experiment at its maximum scale, and the number in the 10-K says the quiet part: one franchise was now a third of a public company. That concentration is the background for everything that happened to this game next.
How we know
IGN's contemporary review carries the launch-window reception; the 34.3 percent franchise revenue figure comes from Take-Two's fiscal 2004 annual report filed with the SEC. We date the event to the month, which is what our fetched record supports directly.
Sources
- IGN. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas review (IGN, contemporary, 25 October 2004) (2004) · Reputable sourceign.com · The domain "ign.com" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.. Take-Two Interactive annual report (10-K) for fiscal year 2004, filed December 2004 (SEC EDGAR) (2004) · Primary source (author-declared)sec.gov · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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