Just under a decade after GTA 5’s release in 2013, Rockstar has finally responded to criticism from fans and LGBTQ+ advocate group OutMakingGames by editing several character models, dialogue lines and action figures in the game.
The company has been called out for the inclusion of these elements at multiple points over the past few years, with OutMakingGames writing in 2021: “Given the cultural impact GTA 5 has around the world, Rockstar has a social responsibility to your players (many of whom may be LGBTQ+), to your staff and to the world at large to not promote violence against trans and gender diverse people.”
With GTA 5’s porting to new-gen consoles via the expanded and enhanced edition, Rockstar finally seems to have somewhat rectified the issue.
GTA 5 Has Several Transphobic Jokes Removed
According to GTA Net admin Kirsty Cloud on Twitter, the changes made include stopping several NPC models depicting trans caricatures from spawning outside of an in-game nightclub called Cockatoos, although those models are still available in the game’s director mode at present.
Other changes include unique protagonist dialogue lines designed to be said to these NPCs, some of which referred to using hormones, which will likely become unused now.
Another change concerns an action figure prop depicting a superhero named Captain Spacetoy with ‘interchangeable genitalia’, which has been revised to show one of the game’s other action figure models instead.
Reaction to this news from the GTA community has been mixed, with GTA community member Yangy Young posting a Twitter thread dissecting the impact of the news, in which they concluded: “the circumstances suck, the outcome isn’t a huge deal like people are making it out to be, Rockstar can do better in the future.”
On the other hand, ResetEra user Javier23 commented: “I'm not about to congratulate them for removing something that should have never been in there in the first place, after an entire decade of regular updates.”
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