13 Years of Gaming Chaos Since GTA 5: What's Changed?

From Fortnite's rise to E3's fall, here's a look at the biggest gaming stories since GTA 5 launched in 2013, as GTA 6 finally nears.

Remember when GTA 5 first dropped back in 2013? It feels like a lifetime ago, right? Well, that's because it basically was—13 years, to be exact. And in that time, the gaming world has flipped upside down. Fortnite didn't exist, live-service games weren't the norm, and E3 was still the king of summer. Now, as GTA 6's November 19 release date looms, let's take a stroll down memory lane and see just how much has changed.

First up, Skyrim. It came out two years before GTA 5, and we're still waiting for a new Elder Scrolls. But Bethesda didn't leave us hanging—they just kept porting Skyrim to everything. Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, VR, even Amazon Alexa. Yes, you can literally play Skyrim on your smart speaker. It's the gift that keeps on giving, whether you asked for it or not.

Then there's Watch Dogs. Ubisoft tried to fill the GTA-shaped hole with hacking and mayhem. The first one was okay, but Watch Dogs 2? That was a gem. And then... nothing. Legion came out in 2020, and the series went quiet. We're still hoping for a proper sequel, but hey, at least we have memories.

Now, here's a wild one: Halo is on PlayStation. Back in 2013, that would've been unthinkable. Microsoft was all about exclusives, but times change. Halo: Campaign Evolved launched on PS5, and it's honestly still weird to see. With new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma talking about exclusives again, who knows what's next?

GTA 5 itself has been everywhere. It started on Xbox 360 and PS3, then hit PC, Xbox One, PS4, and eventually current-gen consoles. It's like Rockstar just kept porting it while we waited for GTA 6. And hey, it might even come to Switch someday—the trilogy already did.

Call of Duty? Oh boy. Since GTA 5, we've had 13 mainline CoD games, plus Warzone, plus mobile games. And now Microsoft owns it all. That's a whole lot of annualized chaos. Meanwhile, EA got a new CEO—Andrew Wilson took over the same month GTA 5 launched. He's been steering the ship ever since, and now EA's being sold for $55 billion. Talk about a glow-up.

And remember E3? That massive gaming expo where everyone gathered? It's gone. Canceled for good. The last real show was in 2019, and after COVID and a bunch of false starts, it just faded away. GTA 5 outlived E3, which is saying something.

So as we gear up for GTA 6, it's wild to think about everything that's happened. Fortnite, live-service booms and busts, Halo on PlayStation—it's a different world. What do you think's been the biggest change since GTA 5? Will you be picking up GTA 6 on day one?