Ian Murray, the UK's Minister of State for Creative Industries, Media and Arts, went on The Game Business podcast and addressed something that has frustrated and annoyed the British gaming industry and fandom for years. When asked why the UK government does not celebrate its gaming successes the way France did with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, for example, Murray's response was refreshingly direct.
If we were the US, we'd be puffing out our chests, putting up the flags and marching up and down the main street, championing what we do. We have traditionally not done that from a cultural perspective.
Grand Theft Auto 6, which launches on November 19, 2026, will be one of the largest entertainment launches in history. It will also be, in terms of where it was actually made, a predominantly British product, as Rockstar North is in the UK. Yet, based on the minister's own comments, nobody in Downing Street is going to knight Rockstar developers or put out celebratory press releases about the British creative industries delivering another generational hit.
The perception that Grand Theft Auto is American is a careful and deliberate choice. The satire is aimed at American culture, American media, American politics, and American consumerism. Dan Houser, Rockstar's former co-founder, once said, "GTA isn't about America, it's about Americana. It's the America that was sold to the world." However, as we've already mentioned, Rockstar North, the lead developer on every mainline Grand Theft Auto title since Grand Theft Auto III, is based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded as DMA Design in Dundee in 1987.
Grand Theft Auto 6 has been in development at Rockstar North for the better part of seven years. Supporting studios include Rockstar Leeds, Rockstar Lincoln (which handles quality assurance), Rockstar Dundee, and Rockstar London. The $3 billion budget has largely flowed through UK payrolls, the UK tax system, and the UK creative industries.
| Game / Franchise | Lead UK Studio | UK Location | Parent Company Location |
|---|---|---|---|
Grand Theft Auto series | Rockstar North | Edinburgh, Scotland | Take-Two (New York) |
Red Dead Redemption series | Rockstar North (support) | Edinburgh, Scotland | Take-Two (New York) |
Forza Horizon series | Playground Games | Leamington Spa, England | Microsoft (USA) |
Batman: Arkham series | Rocksteady Studios | London, England | Warner Bros (USA) |
Total War series | Creative Assembly | Horsham, England | Sega (Japan) |
F1 series | Codemasters | Southam, England | EA (USA) |
Hitman series (historical) | IO Interactive (no longer UK) | N/A | N/A |
LEGO games | TT Games | Knutsford, England | Warner Bros (USA) |
The pattern is consistent. The UK makes world-class games, and the studios are British. Unfortunately, the intellectual property is not. This is the complication that Murray was dancing around in his interview. France's Clair Obscur is different in that it is a French studio owned by Kepler Interactive, a publisher with significant French backing.
When Clair Obscur succeeded, the economic and cultural benefits flowed back to Francey. The French government could celebrate it as a French success story because the intellectual property, the ownership, and most of the revenue belonged to French interests. GTA 6 is different. Rockstar Games is a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, a publicly traded American company headquartered in New York.
The game is made in the UK by British workers, but the intellectual property is owned by an American company. When GTA 6 generates billions in revenue, most of that money leaves the UK. This is the issue Murray is diplomatically not naming. The UK can celebrate British workers making great games, but it cannot fully celebrate British ownership of those games, because in most cases that ownership does not exist.
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There are other reasons the British government, or any other government, for that matter, would want to avoid celebrating GTA. It's a controversy magnet. Many countries have banned the franchise, criticized by politicians across the political spectrum for its violence, its sexual content, and its satirical treatment of police, politicians, and institutions.
It's not just the game either, as Rockstar has also found itselg in hot water lately, with the company firing UK workers for reportedly attempting to unionize. The company has also underpaid workers, while the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the October 2025 Rockstar firings "deeply concerning" in December. A government photo op celebrating a company that has had labor disputes investigated at the state level is not the obvious political win that a clean celebration of Clair Obscur was for Emmanuel Macron.
For what it's worth, Murray did announce a new £28.5 million fund intended to develop more homegrown UK gaming IP. Rather than celebrating games made in the UK but owned elsewhere, the government is trying to build an ecosystem that produces UK-owned hit games it can celebrate without complications.
GTA 6 will launch in seven months. It will most likely generate more cultural conversation, more revenue, and more economic activity than any film, book, or album released this year. The people who built it will wake up in Edinburgh on November 20 knowing they created the biggest entertainment product of the decade, and that will have to be enough, because, based on Ian Murray's interview, the people in government who could change that have decided the politics are too complicated to bother with.