One of the founders of Rockstar, Dan Houser, made a statement in an interview in 2018 that takes on a new light as of today, November 6, 2024. The now 50-year-old said: He is grateful that GTA 6 will not be released during Donald Trump’s presidency. However, GTA 6 will now be released during such a presidency and times are even crazier than Houser feared.
What exactly did he say back then? In an interview with GQ, Dan Houser spoke in 2018 about the Western epic Red Dead Redemption 2. Back then, when Trump was president, Houser was glad that the release date of GTA 6 would not fall during Donald Trump’s term.
He was elected in 2016, but even if he had served two consecutive terms, he surely would have left office, if GTA 6 would be released.
Therefore, Dan Houser says:
It is really unclear what we would do with it, not to mention how much people would be upset about whatever we do. Both the intense liberal development and the intense conservatism are both very militant and very angry. It is frightening, but also strange, and yet both seem to occasionally tip into the absurd. For these reasons, it is difficult to parody them. Some of what you see is simply beyond satire. It would be outdated within two minutes because everything changes so quickly.
We reported on this at MeinMMO back then.
GTA 6 as a satire on a time that is already a satire
What it’s about: GTA 6 has always been a wild satire on the current times. Red Dead Redemption 2, on the other hand, was a game about a past time period that has little to do with the present.
After Trump won the US election today, GTA 6 will be released in exactly such a world that Houser feared back then. It is a world that itself appears to be a caricatured satire:
- Both the conservative and the liberal camps are at least in the USA even more militant than in 2018 and angrier
- Trump tips into the absurd even more often than before (via youtube)
- And much of what would have seemed exaggerated satire in 2018 has already actually happened
Who is Dan Houser? Dan Houser (50) co-founded Rockstar Games with his brother Sam Houser. He was involved in 5 GTA games; his last game was Red Dead Redemption 2 in 2018.
In March 2020, Dan Houser stepped away from Rockstar Games. Recently, he founded the studio “Aburd Ventures” and worked there on a new “Open World Action Adventure”.
One can be curious to see how GTA 6 will deal with the new situation. To some extent, GTA 6 is already confronted with the problem that satirical and exaggerated characters in the game are now too real: Tattooed man demands 2 million dollars from GTA 6: “They stole my life”
