Summary
There has been some concern voiced online that the next Trump presidency could lead to the delay ofGrand Theft Auto 6.GTAfans have been waiting over a decade forGrand Theft Auto 6, and finally, the end is in sight.
Rockstar Games parent company Take-Two has confirmed thatGrand Theft Auto 6is on track for its fall 2025 release window, meaning that the game should be out at some point between the end of August and the end of December of next year. The most likely scenario is that theGTA 6release date will be in the September-November window, as that’s typically when the biggest games drop every year. However, Rockstar has a long history of delaying its games, and there are many fans who fear that the same will hold true forGrand Theft Auto 6.
Beyond typical development challenges causing the delay of the game, some fans are now worried that Donald Trump’s presidency could causeGrand Theft Auto 6’s release date to be pushed back. The concern seems to stem from two areas. One, is the fact thatRockstar Games co-founder Dan Houserpreviously expressed relief thatGrand Theft Auto 6wouldn’t be released during a Trump presidency, and two, that Project 2025 may influence the content of the game.
What Dan Houser Said About GTA 6 and Trump
Dan Houser’s commentsoriginate from a GQ interviewin 2018 aboutRed Dead Redemption 2. At the time, Houser said he was “thankful” that he wasn’t releasingGrand Theft Auto 6during Trump’s presidency. “It’s really unclear what we would even do with it, let alone how upset people would get with whatever we did. 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. It’s hard to satirise 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 It would be out of date within two minutes, everything is changing so fast,” Houser told GQ. Houser is no longer at Rockstar Games, and even if he was, it’s incredibly unlikely that the results of the election would have actually pushed Rockstar to delayGrand Theft Auto 6.
The more legitimate concern comes from Project 2025. While Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s controversial initiative uses language that suggests censorship of video games, and really all media, is on the table. There is genuine concern that Project 2025 could have an impact on the gaming industry,as pointed out by Game Developer. Considering the extreme violence and sexual content typically found in theGrand Theft Autoseries, it’s not surprising that some fans have made the leap to suggest that the game could become a target if Project 2025’s initiatives became law.
Trump’s Past Comments on Violent Video Games
It doesn’t help that avid Trump supporterElon Musk has criticizedGrand Theft Autoin the past, saying he couldn’t playGTA 5because of the opening scene that has players shooting police officers. Trump himself has spoken out against violence in video games, seemingly placing the blame on games in the wake of mass shooting incidents. After the August 2019 shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio that saw a combined 29 people killed, Trump said, “We must stop the glorification of violence in our society. This includes the gruesome and grisly video games that are now commonplace. It is too easy today for troubled youth to surround themselves with a culture that celebrates violence. We must stop or substantially reduce this, and it has to begin immediately.” Despite this declaration, no regulations or restrictions were placed on the gaming industry during Trump’s first presidency.
For now, gamers don’t have toworry about aGrand Theft Auto 6release date delay. And even if one were to occur, it wouldn’t necessarily be because of Trump or Project 2025. As previously mentioned, Rockstar delays its games regularly, and so it’s definitely possible that the same will happen withGrand Theft Auto 6, completely independent of the political situation in the US.
Grand Theft Auto 6
WHERE TO PLAY
Grand Theft Auto VI heads to the state of Leonida, home to the neon-soaked streets of Vice City and beyond in the biggest, most immersive evolution of the Grand Theft Auto series yet.Jason and Lucia have always known the deck is stacked against them. But when an easy score goes wrong, they find themselves on the darkest side of the sunniest place in America, in the middle of a criminal conspiracy stretching across the state of Leonida — forced to rely on each other more than ever if they want to make it out alive.
