User blog comment:TheToughGuy/BIG NEWS: About Possible Sequels/@comment-1824274-20130801022127/@comment-2099017-20130801210922

Actually, not all the GTA games are considered reboots. From how I see it, there's mainly two: Grand Theft Auto 3 and Grand Theft Auto IV.

Grand Theft Auto 3 would be considered a reboot because it was the entry that introducted players for the first time a 3D environment where they could do whatever they wanted to do. The games that followed it (from GTA: Vice City to GTA: Vice City Stories) basically were prequels that showed what some characters did before the events of GTA 3.

Grand Theft Auto IV would be considered a reboot as well because it didn't have any characters come back from the earlier games (like how Claude from GTA 2 was brought back in GTA 3, which I believe so don't discourage me). Plus, it really introduced players to an actual living, breathing city. The combat was also enhanced and so forth. Grand Theft Auto V will not be a reboot as some characters from GTA IV and maybe it's episodes will also return. Not the protagonists though from what I read in Game Informer, so don't expect to come across Niko Bellic in Downtown Los Santos.