Key Takeaways
- Take-Two has confirmed GTA 6 is still set for a fall 2025 release
- Concerns arise online about potential delays due to Trump.
- If GTA 6 is delayed, it will likely be due to reasons unrelated to the Trump presidency.
There has been some concern voiced online that the next Trump presidency could lead to the delay of Grand Theft Auto 6. GTA fans have been waiting over a decade for Grand Theft Auto 6, and finally, the end is in sight.
Rockstar Games parent company Take-Two has confirmed that Grand Theft Auto 6 is on track for its fall 2025 release window, meaning that the game should be out at some point between the end of August and the end of December of next year. The most likely scenario is that the GTA 6 release date will be in the September-November window, as that’s typically when the biggest games drop every year. However, Rockstar has a long history of delaying its games, and there are many fans who fear that the same will hold true for Grand Theft Auto 6.
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Beyond typical development challenges causing the delay of the game, some fans are now worried that Donald Trump’s presidency could cause Grand Theft Auto 6‘s release date to be pushed back. The concern seems to stem from two areas. One, is the fact that Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser previously expressed relief that Grand Theft Auto 6 wouldn’t be released during a Trump presidency, and two, that Project 2025 may influence the content of the game.
What Dan Houser Said About GTA 6 and Trump
Dan Houser’s comments originate from a GQ interview in 2018 about Red Dead Redemption 2. At the time, Houser said he was “thankful” that he wasn’t releasing Grand Theft Auto 6 during Trump’s presidency. “It’s really unclear what we would even do with it, let alone how upset people would get with whatever we did. Both intense liberal progression and intense conservatism are both very militant, and very angry. It is scary but it’s also strange, and yet both of them seem occasionally to veer towards the absurd. It’s hard to satirise for those reasons. Some of the stuff you see is straightforwardly beyond satire. It would be out of date within two minutes, everything is changing so fast,” Houser told GQ. Houser is no longer at Rockstar Games, and even if he was, it’s incredibly unlikely that the results of the election would have actually pushed Rockstar to delay Grand Theft Auto 6.
The more legitimate concern comes from Project 2025. While Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s controversial initiative uses language that suggests censorship of video games, and really all media, is on the table. There is genuine concern that Project 2025 could have an impact on the gaming industry, as pointed out by Game Developer. Considering the extreme violence and sexual content typically found in the Grand Theft Auto series, it’s not surprising that some fans have made the leap to suggest that the game could become a target if Project 2025’s initiatives became law.
It doesn’t help that avid Trump supporter Elon Musk has criticized Grand Theft Auto in the past, saying he couldn’t play GTA 5 because of the opening scene that has players shooting police officers. Trump himself has spoken out against violence in video games, seemingly placing the blame on games in the wake of mass shooting incidents. After the August 2019 shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio that saw a combined 29 people killed, Trump said, “We must stop the glorification of violence in our society. This includes the gruesome and grisly video games that are now commonplace. It is too easy today for troubled youth to surround themselves with a culture that celebrates violence. We must stop or substantially reduce this, and it has to begin immediately.” Despite this declaration, no regulations or restrictions were placed on the gaming industry during Trump’s first presidency.
For now, gamers don’t have to worry about a Grand Theft Auto 6 release date delay. And even if one were to occur, it wouldn’t necessarily be because of Trump or Project 2025. As previously mentioned, Rockstar delays its games regularly, and so it’s definitely possible that the same will happen with Grand Theft Auto 6, completely independent of the political situation in the US.
