Speaker A
Just in case you're wondering, Grand Theft Auto 6 is going to be really woke because Rockstar Games is really woke. I just want to put that out there. There are a lot of people like, "Oh, no, it won't be." I mean, this is from 2018
Analysis of GTA 6's shift towards 'woke' culture, Rockstar's changing work environment, and the potential impact on the franchise's future success.
Key Takeaways
- GTA 6 will reflect Rockstar's new, more inclusive and 'woke' culture.
- The game will feature a female protagonist and avoid offensive content targeting marginalized groups.
- Rockstar is trying to change its historically toxic workplace culture.
- Despite changes, GTA 6 is expected to sell well but may mark the beginning of the franchise's decline.
- The evolving political and social landscape makes satire more difficult and dated quickly.
What the video covers
- GTA 6 is expected to be 'woke' due to Rockstar Games' cultural shift and efforts to move away from their previous 'boys club' mentality.
- Dan Houser, former Rockstar head, expressed concerns about releasing GTA 6 during politically intense times like the Trump era.
- Rockstar has faced criticism for its past toxic work culture, including crunch, drinking, and a male-dominated environment.
- The new game reportedly includes a playable female protagonist for the first time and aims to avoid offensive satire targeting marginalized groups.
- Despite the cultural shift, GTA 6 is expected to sell well due to the franchise's strong brand recognition.
- The video creator expresses skepticism about the changes, suggesting the game may feel more like 'The Sims' and less like classic GTA.
- There is concern that the 'woke' direction could lead to a decline in the franchise's popularity over time.
- Rockstar's attempts to reinvent itself as a more inclusive and respectful employer are highlighted.
- The video references leaked information and developer commentary on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts within Rockstar.
- The creator reflects on the challenges of satire in the current political climate and how GTA's traditional edgy humor may be toned down.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction to GTA 6 and Rockstar's Woke Shift
- 00:37Challenges of Satire in Modern Political Climate
- 01:19Leaks and Publishing Challenges on YouTube
- 02:00Rockstar's Efforts to Change Workplace Culture
- 02:44GTA 6's New Direction and Female Protagonist
- 03:31Rockstar's Success and Need for Change
- 04:14Game Appealing to New Audiences and Criticism
- 05:31Developer Diversity and DEI Controversies
- 06:06Anticipated Impact and Future of GTA Franchise
- 07:14Conclusion: Satire, Audience, and GTA's Evolution
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
when they were making Red Dead Redemption 2. And at the time, it was Dan Houser that was in charge. And he says he was thankful he's not releasing GTA 6 in the age of Trump. Well, who could have known how that age? It's
Speaker A
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 very militant and very angry. It's scary, but it's also strange. And yet, both of them seem
Speaker A
occasionally to veer towards the absurd. It's hard to satirize for those reasons. Some of the stuff you see is straightforwardly beyond satire. It would be so out of date within two minutes, everything is changing so fast.
Speaker A
Well, he left Rockstar in 2020, and in the George Floyd era, Rockstar were like, you know what? We need to clean up our act. Now, one might ask why Rockstar would need to clean up their act, right?
Speaker A
Rockstar Games is probably the biggest game studio ever. Like, GTA turned into this phenomenal cultural powerhouse, right? Like I said, I actually did a video on this that I didn't want to put out because on YouTube Rockstar were striking
Speaker A
every leak, but I put it on my Twitter account. I'll leave a link in the description so you can go watch it. So, I published it on my Twitter account, not on YouTube. YouTube gives you strikes.
Speaker A
Anyway, [clears throat] Rockstar were just such a phenomenally successful company with GTA making billions of dollars. It's hard to imagine why they would feel the pressure to do anything. Oh, you should stop being misogynistic of GTA 5 and a bunch
Speaker A
of anti-woke jokes in it. They should be like, "No, the amount of money we make proves that we can do whatever the hell we like and that we're right to do so, actually." But instead, anonymous employees claim the company is
Speaker A
working hard to ditch its boys club mentality. Oh, that, that I'm sure this heralds nothing but good things for Rockstar's productivity and success in the future. It's importantly attempting to reinvent itself as an employer back in 2022. Oh, that's interesting. The
Speaker A
change comes after a few years of numerous Rockstar developers speaking about the studio's troubling crunch culture, detailing grueling six-day work weeks and instances of voluntary crunch that were mandatory in all but name as in yeah they were trying to accomplish
Speaker A
high standards. The culture was also rife with drinking, fighting, and trips to strip clubs. Right. It was a culture made by men for men. Understood.
Speaker A
So, they want to change this despite they want to work on their next entry in the immensely lucrative Grand Theft Auto franchise to reflect its new look and is reportedly working to make the title,
Speaker A
which will include a playable woman protagonist for the first time ever, more respectful. Well, I'm sure that's going to work out brilliantly. I mean, there's a reason that this kind of hardworking Protestant ethic of crunch for the sake of the work
Speaker A
rather than making it about you made them this successful. Those people with knowledge of the project explained Rockstar as being careful not to punch down by joking about marginalized groups and contrasting previous entries in the series where nothing was off limits.
Speaker A
Yeah, you know, like this became an absolute powerhouse and now it needs to change. Amazing. Absolutely amazing. 165 million copies of GTA 5 have been sold.
Speaker A
But that is incredible. Absolutely incredible numbers. That's so big you don't need to do anything. But anyway, like Bloomberg reported. Yeah. No, they've cleaned up their frat boy culture and Grand Theft Auto 2. It will
Speaker A
probably feel very different from its predecessor, Grand Theft Auto 6. Incredible. Incredible. Well, I mean, I look forward to seeing what the results are. As I said, I can only have looked at the leaks that I can't put
Speaker A
on YouTube. And as I said in the previous video, right, it looks like it's a game made for girls. It looks like The Sims, but in Grand Theft Auto.
Speaker A
Now, I don't know about you, I don't play the modern Grand Theft Auto games. I played the original back in 1997 whenever it came out and I enjoyed it because you just ran around shooting things, running people over, and stealing
Speaker A
cars. That was fun. But I didn't bother with the modern ones from Grand Theft Auto 3 onwards. I don't know why actually, but anyway. This is the current Rockstar team, at least the female section of it. I
Speaker A
assume there are still some men working at the company. I imagine this, I don't know when this photo was taken actually.
Speaker A
I think it must have been about 2020 onwards when they were like, "Yes, we've got women in our games companies." And as you can see, they're developing Grand Theft Auto 6 there from the poster they're posing under. But yeah.
Speaker A
Yeah, that's about what I expected. People have been digging into these amazing talented developers who are definitely not DEI hires and saying things like, "I keep finding new insecure fat liberal women working on GTA 6, and I'll
Speaker A
probably find even more of them." This one was bitching about anti-DEI accounts back in 2024. She called actual gamers parodies of themselves and basically admitted she hates us. It's embarrassing how they always come out talking about gamers. Yeah. So the she
Speaker A
says these anti-DEI accounts of self-proclaimed gamers who are against the woke are basically parodies of themselves at this point.
Speaker A
That's [laughter] that's a very, very interesting take about people being parodies of themselves. So this is going to be very much like Nolan's The Odyssey in the cultural impact it's going to have.
Speaker A
They know it's a woke product. This is actually weirdly anachronistic. I assume it's because it takes so much time to develop GTA that yeah, six years ago they're like, "Right, okay, we're going to make GTA 6 and ah this is woke. We
Speaker A
put woke and everything. Ah, make it woke. Get loads of women doing stuff." And then the clock ticks on six years later. Like the left is like, "Oh, yeah.
Speaker A
No, no, we woke one was crazy." Yeah. No, no, we're not that anymore. We swear guys, please vote for us. And GTA is going to come out with like, "Hey, would you like a story about girl boss?" No.
Speaker A
Why would you think we would? But it's Grand Theft Auto. It's going to sell millions and millions of copies on the strength that it is, literally just on the name, right? So don't expect it in [clears throat] the same way that
Speaker A
like Nolan's Odyssey is Christopher Nolan and he's doing the Odyssey on the strength of the name alone. It's going to be a success, but what it's also going to do is kind of poison the well for the future. Yeah, I think GTA 6 will
Speaker A
probably do very, very well. Obviously, it's a GTA game, but it's not going to be what GTA 5 was. It's not going to reach those same numbers either obviously, but it's also going to be the beginning of the decline. So like that will be like
Speaker A
unless of course they change it significantly, but if they stay on this path, it'll just be a slow decline and they'll be like, "Oh, no, no, no, it's not woke that killed it." And like, "No, it's 100% it'll be woke that killed it,
Speaker A
by the way." But yeah, I mean, it'll sell millions of copies obviously because it's GTA. But like I said, this has been in the works for a while and the signposts have been
Speaker A
there for people who want to read them. I mean, the fact that again we're getting the female protagonist and the nature of Rockstar itself is to try and be more of a sort of fluffy
Speaker A
normal company. It's like, okay, I don't know why you'd want to do that. Like they say this, this is sort of thing they've been saying for a while. Going back to 2018 with w
Speaker A
This is only from two three days ago. We have to be careful. GTA's approach on satire. 13 years is a long time when developing a game. I think there's always stuff to satarize.
Speaker A
As long as humans are humans, they will figure out way to satarize for us because we work in such a long development cycle. We have to not jump on stuff and instead choose our angle of approach carefully and decide what
Speaker A
things are going to be a bit more timeless. [laughter] I don't know about that, man. I don't know. I mean, we've all seen the twerking black woman on the boot on the roof of the car in the adverts and in the in the footage you
Speaker A
put out. So, I'm just saying, is that timeless? Is that timeless? We're not a TV show coming out every week or month.
Speaker A
We have to be careful what we're choosing to satarize is not going to feel dated in a weird way. It already feels dated. It already feels dated to have like this like background male character and the female girl boss
Speaker A
Latino going around being really annoying. Like, it already feels dated. Um, I think those broader things are okay to sat satarize, but very specific political issues or memes will date fast. Even the way our characters speak we think about a lot because they're not
Speaker A
exact use they're not using extremely contemporary slang. Uh, so we need to feel somewhat timeless like yeah but the thing is it has all dated a lot, right?
Speaker A
It looks stereotypical and caricaturish of the Black Lives Matter era, sort of 2020 to 2023, that sort of era, which has passed. And so, I mean, all I'm saying is I don't think this bodess well since they've already been like editing
Speaker A
out transphobic content from previous uh GTA remasters. Uh, and we've got the uh woke press coming out, and this was in 2023, being like, well, what is this?
Speaker A
There's a moral panic about GTA 6 being woke. Is it a moral panic, or is it just literally going to be an accurate prediction of what the game's going to be about? And as I covered in the video
Speaker A
that I put out on Twitter, again, link in the description. Um, this is going to be Grand Theft Long House, right? This is going to be The Sims. It's going to be GTA for women with a female protagonist that you're going to have to
Speaker A
just deal with. Apparently not given the framing of the game. Um, it's going to be completely dullled down. Basically, a bit boring in uh the story. I mean, I was watching the cut scenes and I was like watching, you
Speaker A
know, 30 seconds of this cut scene and I was reaching for the escape key like, "Oh no, I'm watching a video. I can't skip this cut scene where he's like, "What what dress should I wear?
Speaker A
The sequin one or the other one?" And he's just like, "That one." And she's like, "Well, this one that Oh my god. Oh my god." And we're being told that you've got like a relationship meter, so you have to take her shopping to get her
Speaker A
nails done. Oh, what has happened to GTA in this intervening time, bro? [laughter] What? Who is the audience for this? Cuz certainly not me. And I'm just, you know, I'm just going to go back like at the end of the day, right? I may have my
Speaker A
criticisms of 40k Total War. Uh it looks a bit unreadable. Doesn't look brilliant. I'm not sure that Total War is actually the best vehicle for 40k.
Speaker A
Obviously works a lot better for Warhammer Total War. Um, but I'll take that a million times out of a million over [clears throat] taking some feisty Latina shopping. God [laughter] almighty.
Speaker A
But on the plus side, I bet the video essays are spectacular after this comes
Topics:GTA 6Rockstar Gameswoke culturevideo game industrygame developmentworkplace culturefemale protagonistsatire in gamesgame leaksgaming controversy
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