‘Grand Theft Auto 6’ Can’t Fit Into The Trump Era, Says Rockstar
Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser hinted that fans will be waiting a long time for the release of Grand Theft Auto 6. With Grand Theft Auto 5 still enjoying its status as one of the best-selling video games of all time and Red Dead Redemption 2 set for release on Friday, Rockstar fans should be busy for a while.
And that’s good, because it sounds as though they may have to wait for a new president before Rockstar releases GTA 6, according to Comic Book.
In a recent interview with GQ, Houser stated that he’s “thankful” that it’s Red Dead Redemption 2 being released right now, rather than Grand Theft Auto 6.
#RedDeadRedemption2 #RDR2 #rdr2 leak enjoy it while you can pic.twitter.com/XRm4uXG9ga
— Hunter Smith (@EJamesmithunt) October 24, 2018
“It’s really unclear what we would even do with [GTA6], let alone how upset people would get with whatever we did,” Houser said.
“Both intense liberal progression and intense conservatism are both very militant, and very angry. It is scary but it’s also strange, and yet both of them seem occasionally to veer towards the absurd,” he said in the interview.
“It’s hard to satirize for those reasons. Some of the stuff you see is straightforwardly beyond satire. It would be out of date within two minutes, everything is changing so fast.”
Grand Theft Auto games traditionally take place in the present or near-present, and often contain many references to pop culture and politics.
GTA 5 is full of satirical elements. There are both left- and right-wing radio stations full of political dialogue, and players can run more than one mission that involves illegal immigrants who actually aren’t, according to PC Gamer.
It's alright, partner. Just one more day to go. #RDR2 #RedDeadRedemption2 pic.twitter.com/kyvBnoOwoq
— The Gamesmen (@TheGamesmenAU) October 25, 2018
Since Red Dead Redemption 2 is set in the late 1800s, Rockstar doesn’t have to tackle present-day political issues. However, there are other issues that made crafting the game narrative a challenge. The racial and gender inequality of the era, for example, won’t be true to history in the world of RDR2 — and that’s a good thing.
As Houser says, “you want to allude to that stuff, but you can’t do it with 100 percent historic accuracy. It would be deeply unpleasant.” Not to mention offensive to millions of gamers.
“It may be a work of historical fiction, but it’s not a work of history,” he said of RDR2. So while there may be some references to the inequalities of the day, players won’t actually have to inhabit that reality.
Red Dead Redemption 2 releases worldwide on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on October 26.
In the interview, GQ calls Red Dead Redemption 2 “the most lifelike game world ever made.”
