Rockstar has discussed the need to “be careful” with its satirical take on American culture in GTA 6, when asked about including references to recent events such as the Covid pandemic and Donald Trump’s presidency.
Speaking to French outlet Trois Couleurs, Rockstar Games head of development Rob Nelson cited the “very long” development cycle of GTA 6 as a reason why Rockstar was cautious about what it parodies — to ensure things “stand the test of time.”
“We develop on very long cycles,” Nelson said. “The game’s been in development since 2015, so the idea is gestating for a long time. The majority of the team really started rolling on to it after Red Dead Redemption 2 released in 2018.
“We have to be very careful about what ideas we choose to put in there, because it can take a long time to figure out what our angle is on this,” he added. “Because by the time we write it and cast it and shoot it, and implement it, whatever it is – it could be gone, it could change, it could be dated. And so we’re always trying to think about whether something will stand the test of time.”
Nelson continued by stating that Rockstar was also only likely to pick elements that work with the story it wanted to tell and the world its characters inhabited. It’s an interesting idea that, perhaps accurately, Jason and Lucia may just not care about some of the elements that players would consider emblematic of the U.S. today. They’re criminals on the run, after all, and so likely have other things to worry about.
“I think there will always be things to satirise,” Nelson continued, citing the “stupid challenges” undertaken by influencers and streamers. “There are always ridiculous situations and behaviours that we can find, but we just have to be careful about what we pick.”
In a similar answer to the same question by The New York Times, Nelson insisted that Rockstar did not want “the risk of dating ourselves in a sort of awkward way,” when Trump and Covid are mentioned. “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?”
IGN is one of the very few outlets to have been given an exclusive preview of GTA 6. We also have details on GTA 6’s romance system, how long GTA 6 will take to beat, every GTA 6 side activity we’ve spotted so far, and how GTA 6’s bigger map compares to past Rockstar games as part of our exhaustive and ongoing coverage. Up to speed on all that? Here’s 69 new gameplay details we spotted during our time with GTA 6.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
