Rockstar keeps real politicians out of GTA VI's satire

GTA VI will not mock any real politician, event or movement by name. Rupert Humphries, senior vice president of narrative at Rockstar, says so in the full interview from LOVE Issue 27. Photos of the printed pages appeared on X on 5 October, and Eurogamer and VGC quoted them the same day.

"We don't want to be too specific about any particular person, event, movement or anything like that," Humphries says. He explains why: the game should feel tied to the moment of release, but it is not a copy of the world we live in. Politics is still there. Florida gives the team culture wars to work with, and they show up through election signs, campaign robocalls, radio ads and political talk shows.

Timing is the other reason. Rockstar has worked on the game for years, so a trend that lasts six months is a trap. "You need to see it for what it is and not jump on the bandwagon," Humphries says. The team picked up conspiracy theories and the strange ways people react to everyday events, then built its own "slanted, overblown versions" of them. A plain copy of today would be boring, he adds: "it has to be more over the top, more insane, more in your face."

The same interview shows how the world was researched. Aaron Garbut, head of development and co-studio head at Rockstar North, says every game starts with small trips. For GTA VI a few people drove from Miami through nearby towns and down the Keys to Key West. On another day Garbut and several art directors filmed the Everglades and the city from a helicopter. They ended up hovering over a stadium during a Beyoncé concert. "I think we made the local news the next day," he recalls. The team also spent time with locals, police and gang members included.

The voices on the street have their own team too. Humphries and writing director James Horton describe a group in Los Angeles that writes only pedestrian dialogue, plus advertising and comedy writers in New York, Los Angeles and London. For players this means a Vice City full of parody, with invented candidates and conspiracies instead of real names. GTA VI launches on 19 November on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.