Buy new:
£11.50£11.50
Arrives:
Tuesday, Feb 14
Dispatches from: Amazon Sold by: The UK Book Warehouse
Buy Used: £5.25
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer – no Kindle device required. Learn more
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Jacked: The unauthorized behind-the-scenes story of Grand Theft Auto Paperback – 15 Mar. 2012
| David Kushner (Author) See search results for this author |
| Amazon Price | New from | Used from |
|
Kindle Edition
"Please retry" | — | — |
|
Audio CD, Audiobook, Unabridged
"Please retry" | £28.80 | — |
Purchase options and add-ons
The behind-the-scenes story of the world s most notorious and controversial video games company - Rockstar Games.
Jacked is the incredible story behind the phenomenon that changed video games for ever Grand Theft Auto.
Powerful politicians tried to stop it, parents and activists vigorously campaigned against it, but they couldn t stop GTA breaking records. GTA IV became the biggest entertainment product launch of all time, eclipsing all other books, films and music, and went on to become the most controversial video game in history.
Now, after 10 years of research, David Kushner reveals how Sam Houser s company, Rockstar Games, made it all possible. He lifts the veil of secrecy around the team to show how a blend of creative genius, daring PR campaigns, big egos and an obsessive work ethic all came together to create a monster with a tendency to spiral out of control. Including the full story behind Hot Coffee the hidden sex minigame that nearly killed the game and the company Jacked gets right to the heart of what it takes to make a classic computer game...
- ISBN-100007434855
- ISBN-13978-0007434855
- PublisherCollins
- Publication date15 Mar. 2012
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions13.5 x 2.2 x 21.6 cm
- Print length304 pages
Frequently bought together

- +
- +
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Lost in a Good Game: Why we play video games and what they can do for usPaperback£12.28 deliveryOnly 10 left in stock (more on the way).
The Ultimate History of Video Games, Volume 2: Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, and the Billion-Dollar Battle to Shape Modern GamingPaperback£15.88 deliveryOnly 8 left in stock (more on the way).
Product description
About the Author
David Kushner is an award-winning journalist and author. His books include Levittown: Two Families, One Tycoon, and the Fight for Civil Rights in America's Legendary Suburb, Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids: How a Gang of Geeks Beat the Odds and Stormed Las Vegas, and Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture.
Kushner is a contributing editor of Wired, Rolling Stone, and Spectrum. He has also written for publications including the New York Times Magazine, New York, GQ, and Details. A frequent guest on TV and radio, he is the digital culture commentator for National Public Radio Weekend Edition Sunday.
Product details
- Publisher : Collins (15 Mar. 2012)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 304 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0007434855
- ISBN-13 : 978-0007434855
- Dimensions : 13.5 x 2.2 x 21.6 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 396,948 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 267 in Computer Scientist Biographies
- 290 in Sports & Entertainment Industry
- 398 in Games Programming
- Customer reviews:
About the author

David Kushner is an award-winning journalist and author. His books include Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture, Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids: How a Gang of Geeks Beat the Odds, Stormed Las Vegas, Levittown: Two Families, One Tycoon, and the Fight for Civil Rights in America’s Legendary Suburb, Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto, Alligator Candy: A Memoir, and The Players Ball: A Genius, a Con Man, and the Secret History of the Internet's Rise.
Kushner is also author of the graphic novel Rise of the Dungeon Master: Gary Gygax and the Creation of D&D, illustrated by Koren Shadmi, and the ebook, The Bones of Marianna: A Reform School, a Terrible Secret, and a Hundred-Year Fight for Justice. Two collections of his magazine stories are available as audiobooks, The World’s Most Dangerous Geek: And More True Hacking Stories and Prepare to Meet Thy Doom: And More True Gaming Stories.
A contributing editor of Rolling Stone, Kushner has written for publications including The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Wired, New York Times Magazine, New York, and GQ, and has been an essayist for National Public Radio. His work is featured in several “best of” anthologies: The Best American Crime Reporting, The Columbia Journalism Review’s Best Business Writing, The Best Music Writing, and The Best American Travel Writing. He is the winner of the New York Press Club award for Best Feature Reporting. His ebook The Bones of Marianna was selected by Amazon as a Best Digital Single of 2013. NPR named his memoir Alligator Candy one of the best books of 2016. He has taught as a Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University, and an adjunct professor of journalism at New York University.
For articles and info, visit his website www.davidkushner.com.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings, help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyses reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonReviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 September 2021
-
Top reviews
Top reviews from United Kingdom
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Obviously the author and this book get highly rated because the story is naturally captivating and massively popular with fans of the franchise.
The writing could have been done better. A few clumsy inaccuracies however. The author is obviously ignorant of the difference between England, Scotland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, saying that Jones had the most advanced equipment in the whole of England, while he was based in Dundee, Scotland. Another inaccuracy was when the author said that GTA 4 was taking place across 3 cities, 12 towns and woodlands separating each.
All and all it provides a nice background behind the whole Thompson story and shows how conservative but at the same time loud-mouthed the American society can be. Always funny (and a bit scary) reading these from a European point of view.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 September 2021
In fact in more ways than one it made me feel more disconnected by giving the impression that someone like Sam Houser who is a genius of business, went from wanting to build this amazing game/world where anyone could be anything, it shows how someone can turn quite power hungry and forget their roots when they hit the big time.
The story depicts the rise of one character, Sam Houser, from an idealistic youth, to captain of the Rockstar fleet and its rise from a tiny game design crew to the mighty organisation it is now, and the protests of Jack Thompson, a man obsessed with righting the world and making it a perfect place to live in, whilst having the delusion that video games, or one in particular, is corrupting the youth of society.
It does make an interesting read to see both sides of the story, and two sides that I personally can relate to. Whether that be the gamer in me, or the father in me.
Its worth having a read if you have some spare change and time, but once you have read it once it will either remain on the bookshelf for a long time or end up at a boot sale.
Verdict: Its ok!
That said, I find it to be a little less technical than Masters of Doom, which I also thoroughly enjoyed - but if you want to feel like you were there, a fly on the wall, during the deals and trials occurring throughout the birth of the Grand Theft Auto series, it's definitely worth a read. If you were looking for a more objective look and technical details involved, it is lacking on that front.
worth a read for nonfans and fans alike
Maybe I'll write it instead lol









