A UK politician is now saying GTA 6 is something to be proud of, what a timeline

So PC Gamer ran a piece about a UK politician calling GTA 6 "something that we can be really proud of," and the framing is basically 22 years after Hot Coffee. If you weren't around for that mess, it's wild to remember how much heat GTA used to take from people in power. Now we've got elected officials out here doing promo for it. Times really did change.

I don't have the full quote in front of me, but the gist is a politician talking up the game like it's a point of national pride. Probably leaning on the whole thing being made in the UK angle, since Rockstar North is up in Edinburgh and that's been a bragging right for a while. Either way, hearing that kind of language from someone in office is a trip when you remember the era of tabloid outrage and people trying to get the series banned.

from scandal to selling point

Hot Coffee was 2004, and for years after that GTA was the go-to punching bag whenever someone wanted to make a name for themselves going after video games. Now the same franchise is getting praise from politicians. Not a criticism, not a cautious "we're monitoring it," just straight up pride. That's the part that got me. It's less about the game and more about how the whole culture around games shifted.

I'm not naive enough to think this means everyone in power suddenly loves GTA. There's probably an election or a photo op somewhere in the reasoning. But still. Twenty two years is a long time and the contrast is funny in a way that's hard to ignore. The series that used to get congressional hearings is now something a politician wants to be seen associating with.

what it actually means

Honestly it doesn't change anything about the game. It's still coming November 19 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, still Leonida, still Jason and Lucia. But it's one of those little moments that shows how far the whole medium has come. The people who grew up getting yelled at for playing these games are now the adults running things, and the politicians have noticed which way the wind blows.

I'll take it. Weird timeline, but I'll take it.

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Source: PC Gamer · Curated content.