Summary
The long-awaited (official) first look atGrand Theft Auto 6has finally arrived, and while it doesn’t offer too much in the way of concrete information about the game, it does give a glimpse of what its tone will look like. There are plenty ofsmall detailsGTAfans can scrutinize, but there’s one significant focus of the trailer that shouldn’t be overlooked: its depiction of social media.
It’s no secret thatGrand Theft Auto’s approach to world-building is a satirical one. The franchise’s main cities, Liberty City, Los Santos, and Vice City, are comedic parallels to New York City, Los Angeles, and Miami respectively, and the games use their ridiculous, over-the-top premises to poke fun at these locales and United States culture as a whole. As the series progressed, it would go on to broaden its humorous critiques of modern society, expanding their scope through media such as television and the internet. It’s these scathing, hilarious satirical takes that makeGTAsuch a unique series, andGrand Theft Auto 6will surely continue this tradition to some degree.
How Grand Theft Auto 6 Handles Social Media Will Be Crucial
TheGrand Theft Autoseries has touched on social media before, with in-game sites likeGTA 5’s Life Invader (an obvious parody of Facebook) springing to mind as notable examples. However, these jokes feel almost ancient in the age of TikTok and Instagram, and it looks likeGrand Theft Auto 6will be modernizing its depiction of social media in accordance with these changes. The game’s recent trailer shows what is most likely a parody of TikTok at several points. This presents a lot of opportunity, but it also comes with a good deal of risk.
GTA 6’s Social Media Runs the Risk of Dating Itself
Game development takes a long time (GTAfansknow this better than anyone), but social media and internet culture seem to change in the blink of an eye. This contrast could cause some issues forGTA 6, as its attempts to parody modern-day platforms like TikTok, Facebook Live, and Instagram could come across as outdated or worse, out of touch. The social media content showcased in the trailer seems fairly in keeping with modern trends, but it may not be representative of the final game, as it could have been devised just for the trailer. Even if these clips are representative of the in-game content, there’s every chance that social media will look vastly different in 2025, whenGTA 6is set to release.
Hope for GTA 6’s Social Media
While the inclusion of social media comes with some risks, it also brings with it a good deal of potential. For one thing,GTA 6’s comedic and satirical tonealmost requires some mention of social media, as so many shocking, hilarious, or schadenfreude-laden cultural moments are delivered through it. Handled correctly, the game could deliver biting cultural commentary, along with plenty of laughs, through its in-game social media platforms.
There’s even more potential when considering how the player might interact with these forms of in-game social media.GTA 6could offer a good deal of missions or side activities that are based around these fictional platforms, with gameplay designed around investigating certain accounts or uploading pieces of content. Additionally, the in-game social media could factor intoGTA 6’s multiplayer, basically serving as smaller, in-universe platforms that players can use to make posts and view content from other players.
Ultimately, there are a number of different directions Rockstar could take with regard to social media in-game; it could be a central gameplay and storytelling element, or it could simply be used to deliver a handful of throwaway jokes. Only time will tell ifGrand Theft Auto 6sticks the landing when it comes to depicting a fictional version of social media — something that is notoriously difficult to do.
Grand Theft Auto 6
WHERE TO PLAY
Grand Theft Auto VI heads to the state of Leonida, home to the neon-soaked streets of Vice City and beyond in the biggest, most immersive evolution of the Grand Theft Auto series yet.Jason and Lucia have always known the deck is stacked against them. But when an easy score goes wrong, they find themselves on the darkest side of the sunniest place in America, in the middle of a criminal conspiracy stretching across the state of Leonida — forced to rely on each other more than ever if they want to make it out alive.
