Is GTA 6 political? What Rockstar says about satire, Trump and the culture wars

Yes, Grand Theft Auto VI has political satire, but Rockstar Games says it deliberately avoids pointing at real people. Rupert Humphries, Rockstar's senior vice president of narrative, told LOVE magazine the studio doesn't want "to be too specific about any particular person, event, movement." Nothing Rockstar has shown of GTA 6 names a real politician, Donald Trump included.

Humphries spoke to LOVE for its Issue 27 cover story, on newsstands since Oct. 5. The quotes below are his, from LOVE's own preview of the issue on Instagram and as The Shortcut reported the interview on Oct. 6, crediting Video Games Chronicle. Our story on the LOVE issue covers the rest of the interviews.

What Rockstar says about politics in GTA 6

Humphries said Rockstar wants its games to feel specific to the moment they come out, but "not reflective of the exact world we live in." Instead of copying real events, the team takes an issue and makes it "larger than life, and more grotesque." Rockstar tries to "explode the part of it we find interesting," he said, "until the ridiculousness of the position becomes really clear."

He also warned against chasing the news. "If there's a trend blowing up for six months," the team has to see it for what it is "and not jump on the bandwagon."

The writers drew on things like conspiracy theories and how the public reacts to everyday events. Rather than "a like-for-like of something real in the world," Humphries said, Rockstar made "our own slanted, overblown versions."

Setting the game in Florida gave the team plenty to work with, Humphries said, and Rockstar "really tried to build out our world" with "all the characters and culture wars necessary to make it feel alive." In LOVE's preview on Instagram, he calls Leonida, a state where great wealth meets unchecked ambition, "a pressure cooker for all kinds of insanity."

Where the satire shows up

LOVE's feature lists where players will run into Leonida's politics: election signs, robocalls from political campaigns, and commercials and political talk shows on the radio.

Some of it is already visible in Rockstar's own material:

• Campaign signs. In Rockstar's official screenshot Ambrosia 01, red yard signs for Erin Henshaw line the road. One reads "Vote Erin Henshaw" under the logo of the Allied Crystal sugar refinery and the line "The Sweet Lifeblood of Ambrosia," and a billboard above the road says "Proud Allies Of Diversity'n'Treats!" Rockstar hasn't said who Henshaw is or what the campaign is for.
• Talk radio. Rockstar says GTA 6's radio runs from Classic Rock to Talk Radio, though it hasn't named a talk station yet. Our radio stations guide has the six stations named so far.

What we don't know yet

Beyond the Henshaw signs, Rockstar hasn't shown any in-game politicians, parties or talk-show hosts, and it hasn't said how much of the story touches politics. We will add them here as Rockstar reveals them, and our Is it true? page tracks the claims going around.