Colour vision deficiency (CVD), commonly referred to as colour blindness, affects approximately 1 in 12 men (8%) and 1 in 200 women (0.5%) globally, representing roughly 300 million people worldwide (Colour Blind Awareness, 2024). For a tentpole release of the magnitude of Grand Theft Auto VI, with a player base projected in the hundreds of millions, robust colourblind accessibility is not a peripheral feature but a baseline expectation. This report examines the modern state of colourblind support in AAA video games, the technical approaches typically employed, and the colourblind-relevant accessibility options Rockstar Games is expected to deliver in GTA VI based on industry trends, prior precedent in Red Dead Redemption 2 (RDR2), and the legislative environment of the European Accessibility Act (EAA).
There are three primary categories of CVD that game accessibility systems target (National Eye Institute, 2023):
Effective colourblind support must address all three primary deficiencies and, ideally, allow tunable intensity sliders, because deficiencies exist on a spectrum from anomalous trichromacy (mild) to dichromacy (severe).
Contemporary accessibility practice, codified by the Game Accessibility Guidelines and AbleGamers' Accessible Player Experiences (APX) framework, identifies several layered solutions (Game Accessibility Guidelines, 2024; Ellis, 2017):
The Last of Us Part II (2020) set the modern benchmark with over 60 accessibility options, including three CVD filters with intensity sliders and high-contrast display modes. Forza Horizon 5 (2021) shipped with five colourblind presets that recolour racing lines, objective markers, and the minimap.
GTA VI's expected colourblind offering can be inferred most reliably from Rockstar's most recent prior work. RDR2 (2018) included a basic Colorblind setting with three modes — Protanopia, Deuteranopia, and Tritanopia — applied chiefly to the minimap, the radar blip system, and the cinematic/cover-system indicators (Rockstar Games, 2018). However, the implementation was criticised for being a fixed preset without an intensity slider and for not extending the filter to mission-critical world elements such as plant identification in herbalist challenges or stew quality cues. GTA Online inherited the same toggle set with minor refinements.
Based on (a) the EAA which came into force on 28 June 2025 and applies to consumer-facing software sold in the EU (European Commission, 2019), (b) Rockstar's RDR2 baseline, and (c) prevailing AAA accessibility standards, GTA VI is widely expected to include:
A persistent community demand, expressed across GTAForums and r/GTA6, is that colour-sensitive minigame UI (a known RDR2 pain point) be designed colour-redundantly from the outset rather than retrofitted via a global filter (GTAForums, 2024).
GTA VI's RAGE engine renders at extreme dynamic range with PBR materials, HDR output (HDR10 on consoles), and complex post-processing. A daltonisation shader must be inserted late in the post-process chain — after tone mapping but before UI compositing — to operate in display-referred colour space. The UI layer is typically composited separately, allowing UI-only recolouring without affecting the world render, an architecture RDR2 already used (Anonymous Rockstar developer commentary, Digital Foundry, 2019). HDR introduces additional complexity because filter calibration tuned for SDR may shift hue and luminance unexpectedly in HDR; Naughty Dog and Insomniac have both noted this as a calibration challenge requiring per-output-mode tuning.
Colourblind support in GTA VI is effectively guaranteed at the RDR2 baseline and very likely enhanced with intensity sliders, broader UI coverage, and redundant non-colour cues, driven by both EAA compliance and industry expectation. The remaining uncertainty concerns coverage depth — whether every minigame, vehicle dashboard, and Online lobby element receives equal treatment — and whether Rockstar will publish accessibility documentation comparable to PlayStation Studios' first-party output.
Colour Blind Awareness (2024) About Colour Blindness. Available at: https://www.colourblindawareness.org/colour-blindness/ (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Digital Foundry (2019) 'Red Dead Redemption 2 PC: The Digital Foundry Tech Review', Eurogamer, 8 November.
Ellis, B. (2017) Accessible Player Experiences (APX). AbleGamers Charity. Available at: https://accessible.games/accessible-player-experiences/ (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
European Commission (2019) Directive (EU) 2019/882 on the accessibility requirements for products and services (European Accessibility Act). Official Journal of the European Union, L 151/70.
Game Accessibility Guidelines (2024) Full List — Basic, Intermediate, Advanced. Available at: https://gameaccessibilityguidelines.com/ (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
GTAForums (2024) 'Accessibility Wishlist for GTA VI', GTAForums Community Discussion. Available at: https://gtaforums.com/ (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Microsoft (2023) Xbox Accessibility Guidelines, Version 3.4. Redmond: Microsoft Corporation. Available at: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/gaming/accessibility/guidelines (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
National Eye Institute (2023) Color Blindness. Bethesda, MD: U.S. National Institutes of Health. Available at: https://www.nei.nih.gov/learn-about-eye-health/eye-conditions-and-diseases/color-blindness (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Naughty Dog (2020) The Last of Us Part II — Accessibility Features Overview. Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Rockstar Games (2018) Red Dead Redemption 2 — Settings Manual. New York: Take-Two Interactive.
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) (2023) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2. W3C Recommendation, 5 October. Available at: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/ (Accessed: 14 May 2026).