We’ve reached the point in the Grand Theft Auto 6 hype cycle where a games reporter had to publish a follow-up story clarifying that she did not see the protagonist’s penis.
That’s where we are. And the strange part is that the joke leads somewhere serious.
How we got to the shower scene
Rockstar’s rollout has gone through a few distinct eras. First came the trailers and the delays. Then a long stretch of leaks. Now we’re in the official blowout, which started with a half-hour gameplay demo on Netflix, moved through big previews in the games press and has settled into what you could call its arty fashion magazine phase.
Love magazine ran a cover story on GTA 6. Some of it was standard Rockstar talk (every NPC is apparently a distinct individual, which you’ve heard before). Some of it was more thoughtful, covering how the new game updates the series’ long-running satire of the American dream.
The specialist press didn’t want to be outdone. This week, one major games outlet took the unusual step of publishing the full, unedited transcript of the gameplay demo with Rockstar’s Rob Nelson that shaped its coverage back in August. That’s 10,000 words of it.
It sounds excessive. It’s also fair game for a release this big, and there’s enough in there to keep fans going a little longer. The transcript covers new details on the Wanted system, missions, NPCs and more.
Meanwhile, the official drip keeps coming. Rockstar has now sent out a press release about the game’s radio stations, which matters more than it sounds if you’ve ever spent an hour just driving around Los Santos listening to the radio.
Then Cyberleek showed up
The reporter who wrote up that demo ended up having to publish a follow-up denying she had seen Jason’s penis during a shower scene. You can probably guess what happened next.
The leaker Cyberleek, who had been quiet for a while, came back with a batch of footage of a naked Jason. This is leaked, unverified material, not anything Rockstar has released. But it appears to show that yes, Jason’s anatomy is rendered in GTA 6.
It’s silly. It also comes right after word last week that the game will include sex scenes. And that raises a question worth taking seriously.
The double standard that maybe isn’t one
Last summer, Steam and itch.io delisted large numbers of indie games with adult themes. Some were pornographic, some were serious and some were both. The stores acted on their own after pressure from payment processors, who were in turn being pushed by conservative activist groups.
So how does the biggest developer in the world get to put sex in its game while smaller creators get pulled from storefronts? It looks like a double standard.
It might not be. UK games commentator George Osborn posted a thread on this that’s worth reading in full. The short version: online stores like Steam and itch aren’t subject to age rating regulation in the way games with physical releases are. GTA 6 counts as a physical release, even if all you get in the box is a code.
That sounds like it should give digital stores more freedom. It works the other way.
Why red tape protects you here
Without age ratings, the platforms have no legal definitions or protections for the games they sell. A lot of the time they don’t even know what’s in those games. That leaves them exposed to the kind of outside pressure that hit indie developers last year.
An age-rated game has had its content checked against what’s legally allowed in that country. If it’s legal, nobody can stop it from being sold.
So the fix is, of all things, more regulation. It means platforms and indie developers signing up for paperwork and bureaucracy. That’s a dull answer to a story that started with a shower scene, but it’s the right one.
In the UK, and probably still in the US, you have a legal right to look at a digital penis if you want to. The ratings boards are what protect that right. Rockstar has their stamp. A lot of indie games don’t.
