The co-founder of Rockstar, Dan Houser, is glad that he doesn’t have a Grand Theft Auto 6 out right now, but that Red Dead Redemption 2 is about to launch. The reason is the time we live in. Houser sees a divided and heated political climate.
Who said that? Dan Houser (44) spoke in a new interview with GQ. Houser is the co-founder of Rockstar Games and the head writer there.
This is what he said regarding a GTA 6:
It is completely unclear how we would even do that. Just how angry people would be at us, no matter what we did. Both the extreme liberals and the extreme conservatives are both very militant and very angry.
It is terrifying, but it is also strange, and on both sides, it sometimes tips into the absurd. It’s hard to view anything satirically at all. Many of the things we see today are beyond satire. Much would be outdated two minutes after you did it; everything changes so quickly.
Therefore, Dan Houser is probably glad that with Red Dead Redemption 2, a work is being released that does not take place in today’s time but at the end of the Wild West era.
This is what it’s about: The “Grand Theft Auto” series is known for taking place in the present and addressing political issues satirically. Unlike Ubisoft, who believes politics is bad for business, Rockstar does not shy away from politically sensitive topics.
Houser likely believes that the situation in the USA is already so acute that satirical exaggeration today is almost impossible.
The USA is considered a divided country under Donald Trump, where liberals and conservatives are irreconcilably opposed.
Although Houser does not directly mention Trump in the interview, the interviewer refers to the “Trump era” as the world we live in today.
With Red Dead Redemption 2, Rockstar Games has entirely different artistic ambitions and is taking a different direction. This seems to be independent of the political climate and zeitgeist of 2018.
