Because the hype and strain continues to mount for Grand Theft Auto 6, current feedback by Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser have left followers questioning concerning the future route for the cultural juggernaut sequence.
Talking to IGN in at LA Comedian Con, Houser dished on the tasks he labored on throughout his prolonged tenure at Rockstar. Naturally, the topic of GTA 6 got here up virtually instantly.
“It is not going to be a narrative that I wrote or a personality set that I developed,” Houser stated of the upcoming recreation. For some, Houser’s lack of involvement in GTA 6 might sound apparent. He left Rockstar in 2020 to discovered his personal inventive studio, Absurd Ventures, the scope of which spans effectively past video video games. However GTA 6 technically started pre-production in 2018, proper after Rockstar launched Pink Useless Redemption 2. Full-on growth for GTA 6 started in 2020, the identical yr Houser departed.
Two years is sufficient overlap for a lead author to make some type of imprint on a mission, even when it will definitely shifts into a unique route. And Houser was a key participant in constructing the GTA folks know and love. He wrote a lot of the dialogue within the sequence, and was identified for pushing again on writer calls for to hasten growth to fulfill deadlines. Pink Useless Redemption 2 got here to life by way of Put up-It notes in Houser’s workplace. With the assistance of two writing companions, Houser wrote tons of of scenes in Pink Useless Redemption 2 alone. The ultimate script of that recreation is effectively over 2,000 pages in the event you embrace side-quests.
On the similar time, Houser’s involvement with the sequence additionally coincides with Rockstar’s main crunch interval, the place builders may spend as much as 100 hours per week constructing their common open-world video games. Since then, Rockstar has reportedly made a concentrated effort to enhance the work tradition on the firm to reduce the necessity for lengthy work hours, and to make sure video games may persist with projected growth timelines.
Improvement-wise, GTA 6 is already in numerous territory than its predecessors. However the route of the sport itself can be a large query mark. How do you observe up some of the profitable video games of all time? Even earlier than Houser left, this appeared to be a puzzle that was consuming away at Rockstar. In 2018, Houser expressed gratitude that he believed GTA 6 wasn’t going to launch throughout Trump’s presidency.
“It’s actually unclear what we’d even do with it, not to mention how upset folks would get with no matter we did … Each intense liberal development and intense conservatism are each very militant, and really indignant,” Houser instructed British GQ. “It’s scary nevertheless it’s additionally unusual, and but each of them appear sometimes to veer in the direction of the absurd. It’s laborious to satirize for these causes. Among the stuff you see is straightforwardly past satire. It might be old-fashioned inside two minutes, every thing is altering so quick.”
Years later, GTA 6 is, the truth is, releasing throughout Donald Trump’s presidency. Day-after-day brings a couple of phrase salad of headlines that, a decade in the past, would have appeared like one thing that could not presumably be true even within the wacky world of Grand Theft Auto. DOGE. Division of Battle. Autism and Tylenol. Presidential collectible playing cards. Oh, the president is yelling off the roof of the White Home. Simply one other day in Los Santos America.
The place, then, does a sequence identified for satirizing American tradition go when its supply materials already defies comprehension? Can the sequence go so far as it has previously in 2026, even? Prior to now, GTA has cherished poking enjoyable at right-wing extremists by particulars like GTA V‘s Ammu-Nation weapons shops. In 2025, being too loud towards conservative targets can finish your profession, drown you in lawsuits, or restrict dissemination. Can a recreation as essential as GTA 6 nonetheless cover behind satire?
Thus far, it is appeared like Rockstar’s reply is to depart a few of that political skewering focus behind. Trailers for GTA 6 have emphasised the character drama of its two protagonists, Jason and Lucia, and their troubles constructing a life collectively. There’s nonetheless humor in there, principally within the type of absurd NPCs like the man who resembles the Florida Joker. Stories have additionally prompt that GTA 6 may take fewer crude pictures towards minorities, however that was earlier than our present local weather of widespread political strain on media firms that has seen main companies ditch something that may very well be pursued as “woke”.
Maybe Houser’s lack of involvement in GTA 6 will not have practically as a lot of an influence as some followers worry. Video games at all times evolve throughout the course of growth. Extra importantly, video games are by no means the product of a single individual. Rockstar titles sometimes have greater than a single author on deck, nevermind the 1000’s of builders engaged on different features of their video games. However the mixture of Houser’s departure alongside elements like a modified growth strategy, wider political strain, and even leaks all level towards a sequence that finds itself at a crossroads. Even one thing as small as the value level is opaque in relation to GTA 6.
However in the event you ask Houser, he is optimistic about the place issues go from right here.
“I feel it should be thrilling,” Houser stated throughout the panel. “The sport shall be nice, I am certain.”
