Making a well timed satire might be robust when growth takes half a decade or extra – it is the explanation South Park’s caught with its crude artwork fashion for literal many years, however the builders of GTA 6 cannot simply substitute their world-class tech with paper cutouts. As an alternative, the workforce merely tried to keep away from developments that will grow to be outdated come launch.
“We work on it for years and years,” Rockstar’s senior vice chairman of narrative, Rupert Humphries, advised Love Journal, “so you should make content material that may really feel important to the second of launch. If there is a pattern blowing up for six months, you should see it for what it’s and never leap on the bandwagon.” Whereas South Park can centre a whole episode on demonic Labubus and squeeze out some laughs whereas they’re nonetheless scorching, GTA would not fairly have the identical luxurious.
Somewhat than betting on memes that expired years in the past, Rockstar leaned into “issues that us, like conspiracy theories,” Humphries added. “The unusual methods the general public reacts to on a regular basis occurrences, and people are the sorts of issues we ran with. Most often, slightly than attempting to place a like-for-like of one thing actual on the planet, we’ve created our personal slanted, overblown variations, be {that a} conspiracy idea, or one other common up to date phenomenon.”
Grand Theft Auto’s all the time been a darkly satirical sequence, nevertheless it often tackles harder topics too. One notable fixed is how the sequence offers with the American Dream and the way the general public’s angle towards the American Dream has shifted by way of the years.
Requested in regards to the topic, Humphries defined that GTA 4 was already a “form of hole commentary on the phantasm of America as a land of alternative,” whereas GTA 5’s overwhelming cynicism was a sort-of doubling down on the concept. What about at present’s world? And GTA 6’s? “Perhaps the American Dream is extra modest now,” Humphries added. “It is a home for your loved ones and your loans paid off as a substitute of untamed success – however perhaps at present, that’s simply out of attain for the common individual. Miami and Southern Florida are a selected frontline for this battle between astronomical wealth and unbounded ambition, making a stress cooker for all types of madness.”
Humphries stops in need of explaining what GTA 6’s tackle the American Dream is strictly, however his interpretation may actually be a clue to Jason and Lucia’s motivations. Maybe they are not chasing extreme, bottomless swimming pools of money without end just like the GTA protagonists earlier than them. We’ll discover out when GTA 6 launches subsequent month on the nineteenth of November.