Government offices across the country have formally adopted the release of Grand Theft Auto 6 as a national event, with the Ministry of Labour ordering that every shift on November 19 be spent in front of a console. Officials described the measure as a matter of cultural duty rather than leisure, and said the state would cover the cost of the 80-hour playthrough for all civil servants.
The effect on the wider economy has been immediate and, according to the ministry, entirely intended. Factories have been converted into temporary lounges with televisions the size of cinema screens, while the national stock exchange has moved its opening bell to noon on the day so that traders can reach the first mission before the market reacts. A central bank spokesman confirmed that interest rates will be held at the same level until the protagonist's final cutscene has aired.
Transport planners have responded by suspending all trains for the length of the release window, arguing that passengers would otherwise be stranded in carriages without a game to occupy them. Hospitals are preparing emergency rotas, and a special committee has been created to decide which surgeries can be postponed by a day so that surgeons are not deprived of their share of the experience.
Asked whether the country had lost its sense of proportion, the deputy minister for economic momentum replied calmly that the state had simply recognised the reality of the moment. "A nation does not choose its great cultural event," he said. "It only decides how much of itself to put down the moment it arrives. This year the answer is everything." The ministry says the arrangement will be reviewed after the game's first week, when a further national holiday for the film is expected to be proposed.