Driver (series)

Driver is a video game series consisting of a mixture of action-adventure and driving in open world environments. It is developed by Reflections Interactive (now Ubisoft Reflections), and originally published by GT Interactive, later by Infogrames/Atari and then Ubisoft. Since the series began with Driver in 1999, there have been five main installments released of which the latest is Driver: San Francisco in 2011, most of which are about a fictional police officer called John Tanner. As of February 2016, the series has sold more than 20 million units worldwide.

The first game of the Driver series was released for the PlayStation on 25 June 1999 in Europe and 30 June in the U.S. It was later released in 2000 for Game Boy Color in April, Windows in September, Mac in December, and iOS in December 2009. In the game, the player controls a former racecar driver turned undercover police detective named John Tanner. It featured a storyline inspired by 1960s/70s car chase movies such as Bullitt (1968) and The Driver (1978) and based in four real-life cities; Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York City. It was the best selling game of the Driver series and an evolution of the freedom to explore a city as brought forth in the early Grand Theft Auto games.

The second installment in the Driver series was released for the PlayStation on 13 November 2000 in the U.S. by Infogrames (now known as Atari), and later ported to the Game Boy Advance on 4 October 2002 in the U.S. It featured detective John Tanner once more, along with a new partner, detective Tobias Jones, in four more real-life cities (Chicago, Havana, Las Vegas, and Rio de Janeiro). It was the first game in the series to feature 2-player modes, curved roads, and the ability to get out of the car at any time (apart from while being in a pursuit from the police) in order to steal another car on the street.

The third installment in the Driver series was released for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox on 21 June 2004 in the U.S. to generally mixed or poor reviews (despite new features such as the ability to use firearms). The game takes place in Miami, Nice and Istanbul. It was subsequently followed by versions for Windows, and Game Boy Advance.

The fourth game in the series, Driver: Parallel Lines, was released 14 March 2006 for PlayStation 2 and Xbox in the U.S., and 26 June 2007 for Windows and Wii in the U.S. Reflections intended Parallel Lines to "return the series to its roots" by focusing more on driving.

The game differs greatly in other aspects from its predecessors, though, as the story no longer follows undercover police officer Tanner and the game takes place in only one location, New York City. The new main player's name is TK, a criminal rather than a cop. The game includes two time periods, 1978 and 2006, when the main player is sentenced to prison for 28 years and returns in 2006. The game received better reviews, but unlike Driver 3, did not sell particularly well.

Driver 76 is a PlayStation Portable game in the Driver series. Set in New York City in 1976, two years before the events in the first half of Driver: Parallel Lines, the player takes the role of Ray, TK's friend and a supporting character from Parallel Lines. The game was developed by Sumo Digital and Reflections, and was the first Driver game published by Ubisoft after they acquired Reflections. It was released on 8 May 2007 in the U.S.

The fifth Driver game was long rumored to be in production. After several years of speculation, Ubisoft unveiled Driver: San Francisco at E3 2010. After several delays, it was released in September 2011 along with Driver: Renegade 3D.