Rockstar has spent years turning modern America into one giant punchline, but with Grand Theft Auto VI, the studio is deliberately steering clear of directly referencing real-world politicians, political movements and specific events.

That doesn’t mean GTA VI is going to be apolitical. Far from it. Speaking to Love Magazine, Rockstar senior vice president of narrative Rupert Humphries explained that the studio wants Leonida, GTA VI’s fictional version of Florida, to feel recognisable without simply recreating the exact world we live in.

The reasoning makes sense when you consider just how long a GTA game takes to make. Rockstar doesn’t want to build the entire satire around a political figure or meme that might be completely irrelevant by the time the game finally launches. GTA VI has been in development for years, and Rockstar expects its games to remain relevant for a very long time.

The studio’s solution is to take real-world ideas and exaggerate them rather than simply copying them. That means players can still expect plenty of political and cultural satire throughout Leonida. Election signs, campaign robocalls, political advertisements and radio discussions will all be part of the world. Rockstar is simply creating fictional versions rather than having players bump into direct caricatures of today’s politicians.



This isn’t exactly a new approach for the series. Humphries pointed to GTA IV, where political themes surrounding Homeland Security and the Patriot Act played an important role because they were deeply connected to the post-9/11 New York setting.

GTA VI has a very different challenge. The political landscape changes constantly. A joke about a politician, movement or controversy that feels hilarious in 2026 could be completely meaningless five years later. Rockstar therefore wants to focus on broader ideas that will still make sense long after launch.

That also extends to the way characters speak and the trends Rockstar chooses to include. Other Rockstar developers have previously explained that the studio is careful about using extremely contemporary slang and short-lived memes because it wants GTA VI to feel timeless rather than like a snapshot of one particular year.

Rather than simply pointing at a real politician and saying, “Look how ridiculous this person is,” Rockstar can take the underlying idea and push it to an absurd extreme. The game can make fun of conspiracy theories, culture wars, wealth, social media, political advertising and America’s obsession with controversy without needing to tell players exactly who they’re supposed to be thinking about.

Rockstar has also described Leonida as a place packed with cultural conflicts and larger-than-life characters, giving it plenty of material to work with.

So while GTA VI might not give us a fictional Donald Trump equivalent screaming at us from a campaign billboard, don’t expect Rockstar to suddenly become cautious about making fun of America.

If anything, it sounds like the studio wants to make the satire more ridiculous, more exaggerated and less tied to whatever happens to be dominating the news cycle when the game launches.

GTA VI is scheduled to launch on 19 November 2026 for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.



Source: Love Magazine

Original article on GLITCHED

Written by Marco Cocomello