Rockstar says GTA 6 will avoid 'very specific political issues or memes' to stay timeless

Grand Theft Auto 6 will steer clear of directly satirising recent political upheavals and viral internet trends, according to Rockstar Games, which says the long development cycle of the open-world sequel makes it risky to target anything that could feel dated by the time the game ships.

In a new interview with The New York Times, Rockstar North co-studio head Rob Nelson was asked about major cultural turning points such as the election of Donald Trump and the Covid-19 pandemic. He explained that the studio is wary of dating itself by including references to specific events. “We run the risk of dating ourselves in a sort of awkward way,” Nelson said. “So we have to look at things and go, ‘What is going to have a timeless sort of quality that will speak very easily to relatable sort of human folly and foibles and will be remembered as part of this time?'”

The comments echo similar remarks Nelson made to IGN in a separate preview. There, he noted that because Rockstar works on such a long development cycle, it cannot afford to jump on the latest topics. “We’re not a TV show coming out every week or every month,” he said. “We have to be careful that what we’re choosing to satirize is not going to feel dated in a weird way. I think those broader things are OK to satirize, but very specific political issues or memes will date fast.”

Nelson also pointed to the dialogue in the game as an area where the studio is exercising caution. “Even the way our characters speak we think about it a lot, so that they’re not using extremely contemporary slang,” he said. “Even though our characters are a certain age, they need to feel somewhat timeless.”

A history of biting satire

The Grand Theft Auto series has long been known for its absurd and often cutting caricatures of American culture and excess. The last mainline entry, GTA 5, was released over a decade ago and featured lampoons of liberal politics, right-wing politicians, and reckless tech billionaires. However, the cultural landscape has shifted dramatically since then, with social media amplifying outrage culture and political discourse becoming far more polarised.

Despite the cautious approach, a few direct references to real-world people and events have already been spotted in GTA 6’s promotional material. The first trailer showed a man with dyed hair and extensive tattoos, a figure that a real person dubbed the “Florida Joker” claimed was based on his likeness. A recent leak also pointed to a reference to a viral YouTube video from 2021, in which someone filled a truck bed with gasoline during a fuel shortage following a pipeline hack.

The challenge of timeless satire

The question facing Rockstar is whether GTA 6 will keep its jabs at contemporary society subtle and mostly confined to pop culture, or whether it will fire indirect shots at recognisable figures and events, as seen in other games like Far Cry 5’s “pee-tape” mission. The studio’s answer appears to be a preference for the former.

Nelson stressed that as long as humans are humans, there will always be material to satirise. “For us, because we work on such a long development cycle, we have to not jump on stuff and instead choose our angle of approach carefully and decide what things are going to be a bit more timeless,” he said.

The setting of GTA 6 is Vice City, a fictionalised version of Miami, Florida, which is known for its vibrant and often bizarre real-life culture. Rockstar is reportedly picky about which parts of American life it pokes fun at, not only because of the intensely divided political and social climate, but also because development cycles outlast many topics that would otherwise be fun to satirise.

The game’s hand-crafted NPCs, for instance, feature over 600,000 animations, compared to only 55,000 in GTA 5, indicating the level of detail and care being poured into the project. The studio’s focus on timelessness suggests that players can expect a satire that targets broader human follies rather than the headlines of any given week.