Author: Conner C. Arnold

Grant Theft Auto VI, slated for May 26 release for both the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X|S, is one of the most expensive, and highly anticipated, video games ever.

But the online buzz revolves around one big question mark: Will the game continue the politically rebellious tone of earlier “GTA” games, or follow Hollywood down the path of political correctness and, in the process, alienate the franchise’s most ardent fans?

The “Grand Theft Auto” video game series, from Rockstar Games, parodies modern-day American politics and customs, giving  players the liberty to navigate through big cities like New York and Los Angeles in any way they see fit. Players can rule the drug trade,  rob convenience stores, and commit virtually every felony known to man — everything that one would expect from a piece of media called Grand Theft Auto. After rising to popularity, breaking sales records and inspiring countless spin-off titles since the 1990s, the series has finally landed on its sixth installment, to be set in a modern-day Miami called “Leonida.” The first trailer amassed over 475 million views across YouTube and other platforms within 24 hours of its release, making it the company’s most anticipated title to date.

But will GTA VI be the same type of game that has spurred the franchise to unprecedented heights of popularity? Lead writers such as Michael Unsworth, Lazlow Jones, and Dan Houser have all left Rockstar for reasons that range from creative differences to hectic work schedules or significant life events. Some of these people had been with Rockstar since the 2000s. What this means for the series is that the writing in the new game may not have the same signature as prior entries. Historically, projects that have a significant exodus of talent are difficult to maintain.

On top of that, Rockstar might be less inclined to take the risks that propelled the series into fame in the first place. When considering the current economic and political state of the world, it makes sense not to take these risks. GTA VI might not be able to match the level of satire that was present in past installments simply because it’s too risky in today’s current political climate. Development on GTA VI began in 2020, a milestone year in which the world changed. COVID-19 and the George Floyd protests triggered lingering waves of political and cultural tensions that have only divided the country further — and everyone seems to want to play it safe to avoid offending one side or the other. And with the “GTA” games known for parodying modern society, gamers are justifiably worried that the new cast of developers might hold back on what made the series so popular in the first place. 

Risky satire has been an issue since the franchise was launched in 1997. Screen Rant calls the original GTA “one of the most controversial games of all time,” and notes that publicity for the first game sought to capitalize on the controversy by feeding into the emerging argument at the time that video games were “murder simulators” that encourage acts of violence.  critics referring to the original game as “murder simulators” that encourage acts of violence. Hell, on a personal note, I remember playing the game as a kid with my older brother and my dad bursting into the room, yanking the game out of the player and snapping the disc in two!

GTA 3, the Screen Rant article notes, was criticized in the media for its realistic depictions of carjacking, murder and prostitution. C-founder Jamie King left in 2006, two years before the launch of GTA IV, which according to the Screen Rant article came under fire from anti-video-game activist Jack Thompson, who sued to block the game’s release, as well as Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD), which honed in on the game allowing players to “drive” while intoxicated.

GTA V, which came out in 2013, was blasted by critics over a particularly graphic torture scene — but still managed to sell over 215 million copies since its initial release.

It only makes sense for Rockstar to expect big earnings from the next title. 
The company has invested close to $2 billion and spent five years developing the game. But while there’s little doubt that the company is going to make its investment back, Reddit and other blog sites are filled with posts wondering whether the many years of criticism, and the super-charged political environment that has arisen during the same five years that the game has been in development, will finally have an impact.

Consider what happened with Saints Row, one of the early open world crime games that was launched in 2006, as the GTA series was in mid-stride. Saints Row made its mark on the game world by telling the story of a fictional street gang known as the 3rd Street Saints. The Saints Row games, as the Den of Geek website notes, “have historically been filled with homophobia, racism, numerous instances of sexual violence towards women being played for laughs, and numerous other instances of crass content often justified in the name of parody.”

After a five-year hiatus, the series returned in 2022. In the months leading up to the game’s release, Volition made no secret of its desire to change the discriminatory tone of the series. Saints Row producer Rob Loftus even commented that it was time to change the humor to be “more suitable for a larger audience.” What this meant was that series was going to sacrifice some of its more crude and offensive behavior in the hopes that more people would be drawn to the series.

Costing around $100 million to make, the Saints Row reboot was a colossal failure, losing about $48 million in sales. Critics compared it to someone being a regular at a restaurant and then discovering they’ve discontinued some of his favorite dishes — the very same menu choices that made this person a regular in the first place. The diner’s solution is to go to another restaurant, while the restaurant owner decides to double down and remove even more of the old menu items in favor of dishes he believes will have broader appeal. This results in a domino effect of more and more regulars leaving, with only a trickle of replacement diners, until the restaurant is forced to go out of business

Amid all the arguments about how “times have changed,” it has unfortunately come down to whether or not GTA VI will force popular political ideals onto gamers and sanitize its satire in a way that detracts from the overall “GTA” experience. Considering its high profile in the industry, this could be a make it or break it moment for Rockstar. The final say will come from Take Two Interactive, the company that owns Rockstar. Take Two had purchased two other game developers, Zynga in 2022 and Gearbox in 2024, with the objective of enhancing “our financial profile through greater scale and profitability, paving the way for us to deliver strong shareholder value,” according to That Park Place. Since then, Take Two has shuttered two game studios and slashed its workforce. And while this might play well on Wall Street, any time a game company starts talking about profitability and shareholder value, the gamer community’s eyebrows are going to be raised — particularly if Take Two, like Volition, believes strengthening “shareholder value” hinges on making the game more acceptable to the masses.

Some gamers also question whether Take Two/Rockstar has been working with Sweet Baby Inc., a DEI consulting firm. Sweet Baby’s clients include Xbox, Warner Bros. Discovery, Electronic Arts, the NFL, NHL and FIFA soccer franchises, the “Sims” franchise, Star Wars games, Ubisoft, Square Enix, and Wizards of the Coast. According to blogger Daniel Greenfield, of the top 10 bestselling games in 2023, eight were published by Sweet Baby clients. “The consolidation of the gaming industry and the embrace of DEI by top gaming companies has made it virtually impossible for video and computer game players to escape DEI’s reach,” Greenfield warns in a blog post.

If speculation is right and Sweet Baby is working with Take Two/Rockstar, then GTA VI could follow in similar footsteps to the Saints Row reboot — only this would be on a much more massive scale, given the game’s nearly $2 billion budget and sky-high sales projections. 

In the trailers that have been released for GTA VI, it is clear that the new game will continue the franchise’s legacy of parodying modern life. But it is unclear how sanitized this approach will be in the new game. Judging from the trailers, there are nods to TikTok, social media and animal poaching, and there’s even a billboard in one of the screenshots that reads “Tiny Frank’s Diversity ‘n’ Treats,” a rip on how big corporations are trying to profit off rainbow capitalism. That’s an encouraging sign that with GTA VI, Rockstar is sticking with the franchise’s roots and won’t “punch down” too hard in the interest of political correctness.

Still, the trailers are only a slice of the final game, and whether or not GTA VI will match the politically rebellious tones of previous entries remains unknown. If GTA VI shapes up to be another DEI vessel along the lines of the Saints Row reboot, it could spell doom for the popular franchise.

Either way, GTA VI will have a major impact on the gaming industry and its approach to social issues — for better or for worse.

 

Conner C. Arnold is a journalist and longtime video game fan who lives in Carlsbad, Calif. He may be reached at connerclayarnold01@gmail.com.