The first trailer for GTA 6 is finally here. Fans have been speculating when Rockstar Games would drop this trailer and it for sure delivered. As it continues to soar past 100 million views on YouTube, we finally got a new look at Vice City and our two protagonists, Lucia and Jason.
While many gamers are excited for GTA 6’s eventual release in 2025, there are some asking for the game to be banned. Rockstar Games’ iconic M-rated series once again catches the attention of people outside the gaming space.
GTA 6 in Danger: #BanGTA6
The GTA 6 trailer has been viewed millions of times across multiple social media platforms. The hashtag, #BanGTA6, has started to make its way on Twitter/X. While most of the search results are users clowning the trend, there are some who strongly believe GTA 6 should be banned as a product.
The argument users bring up to ban GTA 6 is the game is marketed towards children or that children overall should not be playing GTA 6. Rockstar Games have never marketed their GTA trailers towards children. The studio is very much aware of what GTA 6 is and did not shy away from that in the trailer.
Children should not be playing GTA 6, but this does not mean it should be outright banned for everyone. This argument comes up every time a new GTA game releases and it’s been over a decade since GTA 5 was released, so the argument resurfaced with GTA 6 coming up.
The GTA series has always been targeted towards an adult audience. Every game in the main series, besides GTA 2 (rated T), has been rated M for mature (17 years or older). The ESRB Rating System makes it easy for parents and general audiences to understand if a video game is appropriate for a child or not.
The ESRB Ratings are very similar to the movie rating system. Where movies are rated G (general audiences) to R (restricted), video games are rated E (everyone) to M (mature). Should we start banning movies that are rated R because they’re not meant for children? No.
Will GTA 6 Get Banned?
Not likely as GTA 6 will continue its path of development and release in 2025. For people to rally and try to ban the product before it releases is absurd, and will yield no positive outcome whatsoever, no matter how hard they try.
Furthermore, video games are not primarily played by children. In 2021, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) found that the average video game player’s age in the United States is 31 years old. To dive even deeper, only 20% of them are under 18 years old.
Calling for GTA 6 to be banned because they believe children are the main demographic for video games is nonsense. Even though ESA’s research is two years old, a vast majority of gamers are still over 18 years old.
Rockstar Games know what GTA is and have embraced it in GTA 6’s first trailer. Nothing in the trailer suggests the game will be rated anything past M for mature. The GTA series has always been about playing in a realistic world setting to commit crimes and violence that otherwise cannot be done in the real world.
Online users can continue to highlight the realistic violence Rockstar Games puts on display but that will not get GTA 6 banned from mass circulation.
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