People have been arguing for years about whether Grand Theft Auto (GTA) makes people more violent. Now, with GTA 6 on the way, those debates are heating up again.
Take-Two Interactive’s boss, Strauss Zelnick, isn’t worried, though. He believes video games don’t make people act a certain way—they just show what’s already out there.
Let’s take a closer look at what he said and why this debate never seems to go away.
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick’s Response to Violence Concerns in GTA 6
In a chat on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Take-Two Interactive’s boss, Strauss Zelnick, tackled worries about Grand Theft Auto 6 (GTA 6) making people violent.
He shut down the idea, saying it’s been “tested and disproved over and over again.” According to him, “entertainment reflects behavior” rather than shaping it.
Zelnick also called out the double standard—movies and TV shows, even the really intense ones, don’t get the same kind of heat as video games.
He’s sure that even super realistic games like GTA 6 won’t turn players into violent people.
The History of Violence Concerns in Gaming
People have been arguing about violence in video games since the early 1990s. In 1992, Mortal Kombat came out, and people were shocked by its brutal fights and crazy “fatality” moves.
This caused a huge uproar, and by 1993 and 1994, the U.S. Senate held hearings to talk about violent and inappropriate content in games like Mortal Kombat and Night Trap.
To deal with the controversy, the gaming industry created the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) in 1994 to give games content ratings.
Even with these ratings, every time a new Grand Theft Auto game is released—like the much-anticipated GTA 6—people start arguing about whether violent video games affect real-life behavior.
When GTA III came out with its 3D graphics, it made the violence feel more real, which led to a huge backlash. Then came Vice City and San Andreas, both packed with gang wars, crime, and other risky content.
When GTA 5 was released, some worried that its action-packed, crime-filled world might influence players in a bad way.
San Andreas got into even more trouble because of a hidden mini-game called Hot Coffee, which had inappropriate scenes. Even though it wasn’t supposed to be in the final version, some players found a way to unlock it, leading to lawsuits and a stricter rating. The game’s open world lets players do all kinds of illegal stuff—stealing cars, fighting, and more—without much consequence.
Even some politicians and advocacy groups believe games like GTA might make people numb to violence or encourage bad behavior. This debate never really goes away, showing how society keeps questioning whether game creators should be more careful with the content they put out.
Well, for now we know that Take-Two’s boss, Strauss Zelnick, doesn’t think Grand Theft Auto 6 will make people violent. He trusts that players know the difference between a game and real life. And this keeps the old debate about video games and violence going.
