While marketing for a game release as big as Grand Theft Auto 6 seems like a simple task, CEO of Rockstar’s parent company Take-Two Interactive, Strauss Zelnick, has said that it’s still an important job that has to be done even though just about everyone is already doing it. During a chat at GamesBeat Insider, Zelnick provided more insight into the company’s marketing plans ahead of GTA 6’s November 19th release.
Drawing comparisons to marketing in the TV and film industries, he spoke about how one of the best ways to market a project tends to involve positive reviews. However, reviews can’t simply be positive as a result of a transaction, since the outlet in question would lose its audience quite quickly after that.
“You’re amplifying word of mouth because what you can’t do is pay anyone to say something that’s terrible is good. Even if they’re the most craven creator on earth, the minute they did that, they lose their own audience, right? So, no one’s going to do that.”
“My point is you can’t game the system. We cannot convince people that something that’s bad is good. What we can do is say to people, ‘Look, it’s out there. You’re being exposed to it. It’s important. You ought to try it.’”
He even brought up 2023’s Barbie, which involved heavy marketing by Mattel despite the brand being incredibly old and well-known. Praising the movie’s marketing, Zelnick spoke about how working in entertainment industries doesn’t give you much leeway, however, and that even if you’re not raising awareness anymore, you could still be building up enthusiasm.
“I think in launching broad-based entertainment properties, you don’t have a choice. You always have to go out and create enthusiasm. So, awareness is one thing; enthusiasm is another thing. And we have to show people what they’re going to get because, in linear entertainment, you sit there; it’s presented to you. You don’t have to interact with it. You don’t have to install it. You don’t have to have any expertise. You may like it, you may not like it, but it is a lean-back experience.”
Interestingly, Zelnick also spoke about the Grand Theft Auto 6 Extended Look, and how it even featured a bit of tutorializing to let players learn how the game is played before it even comes out.
“What Rockstar did was incredible, but there was an element of tutorial baked in there, right? It just was a different kind of proposition. If you look at Rockstar’s marketing previously for Grand Theft Auto titles, there are actual tutorials. This was just a different way of giving the same information, which I thought was really impressive. Rockstar figured out how to do that to entertain us for 27 minutes while also explaining to us how you’re going to play the game. And here’s the gameplay.”
Grand Theft Auto 6 is coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Interestingly, Zelnick had spoken about wanting to create energy for the upcoming release with effective marketing in the past.
