Back in the day, rock stars were nihilistic celebrities who insulted audiences, made a virtue of not caring about the world around them, trashed hotel rooms and filled their bodies with alcohol (and worse!) even in the middle of gigs. Much has changed, however, because although today's music stars are probably as self-centred and fed up with the world as they used to be, they are now careful to show social commitment and promote a so-called green and politically correct lifestyle.
Times are changing, and apparently so are the gaming industry's "bad boys", Rockstar Games. Indeed, several senior creative staff members - such as co-founder Dan Houser and transnational radio personality and screenwriter Lazlow Jones - have left Rockstar, which has apparently also led to a new corporate culture at the venerable developer.
In his latest Bloomberg report, gaming journalist Jason Schreier writes that, after the controversy over the massive overtime on Red Dead Redemption 2, Rockstar has been trying to reform itself. This includes the elimination of mandatory overtime and a more flexible approach to development. But the tone of the workplace has also changed.
Schreier has spoken to more than 20 employees who now describe the developer as "a more progressive and compassionate workplace". One developer describes Rockstar as "a boys' club turned into a real company".
In the report, Schreier also describes how Rockstar has taken several "politically sensitive steps" in recent years, such as removing transgender jokes from Grand Theft Auto V and scrapping a game mode featuring criminals versus cops in GTA Online after the murder of George Floyd in 2020. All of this will also affect the tone of the upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI, if Schreier's sources are to be believed.
In the GTA series, as we all know, humour and sly satire used to fly like punches. But in the future, developers will avoid joking about more vulnerable demographics, and the new Rockstar is careful to "not 'strike down' by joking about marginalized groups," the article says. Perhaps that's also why we're now reportedly getting a female protagonist.
We probably won't find out how all this affects the final outcome until 2024 or 2025, as Grand Theft Auto VI is still a long way from launching, according to Bloomberg's sources.