GTA 6 Could Be Banned in the UK Over New Age Verification Laws

Grand Theft Auto is no stranger to controversy. Its penchant for acts of lasciviousness and general degeneracy have made it a subject of news, debates and documentaries for years, leading to outright bans in certain countries.

Now, the IP might run into these exact issues in its very own home.

The UK, one of its biggest markets and home to Rockstar Games' co-founders Dan Houser and Sam Houser, has long welcomed the franchise. However, this might soon change with the UK's "Online Safety Act" restricting a wide range of content to unverified, underaged users. Grand Theft Auto 6 could be the series' first entry to face an outright ban in Great Britain.

In an August 3 report, The Telegraph, quoted the Children's Commissioner Rachel de Souza - "it is no longer acceptable for companies to sidestep their responsibilities simply because adult features occur in game".

In a nutshell, this could mean that Rockstar may have to implement age verification for GTA 6 outside the point of sale. The first domino to fall, should it ever come to that, is Grand Theft Auto Online. As previously spotted, Rockstar is already preparing to roll out a feature that requires players to verify their age.

Rockstar has never been shy about the adult content of their games. Some at the company previously called out "bad parents" for letting underaged children play unsupervised. However, there's a huge difference between complying with government regulations to avoid censoring their game and having to reinforce a game's adult-only rating.

Rockstar has reportedly spent $2 billion over a span of eight years to develop GTA 6. Being cut off from any market, even if only part of it, could prove detrimental to sales and revenue expectations. After all, there's a reason why there's a meme about now-adult players having to ask their parents to buy Grand Theft Auto V years ago.

To make matters worse, online censorship is fast headed in a direction where this type of age verification could become common place in several countries as early as next year.

This doesn't necessarily mean that Rockstar won't make money from GTA 6. It will still be one of the biggest game releases of all time. It just won't be as big if a market as big as the United Kingdom will restrict its sales.

We very much doubt that Rockstar will censor GTA 6 to appease any market either. The best case scenario is they'll hope people will just comply with verifying their age and try to minimize any damage to their bottom line.

With Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick set to talk to investors in a few days, you'd best bet that he'll have to field questions about age verification in the company's library of best-selling franchises, including GTA.