Take-Two Interactive has seen its share of losses and layoffs lately, but it also has a surefire hit in Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto 6, launching next year. Interestingly, in a new SEC Filing (obtained by Game File), the leadership noted “negative review campaigns” or “defamation campaigns” – potentially referring to review bombings – as a risk to success.
“Furthermore, obtaining and maintaining high ratings of our games on the third-party platforms on which we operate are important as they help drive players to find our games. If the ratings of any of our games decline or if we receive significant negative reviews that result in a decrease in our ratings, our games could be more difficult for players to find or recommend.
“In addition, we may be subject to negative review campaigns or defamation campaigns intended to harm our ratings. Any such decline may lead to loss of players and revenues, additional advertising and marketing costs, and reputation harm.”
These concerns aren’t necessarily coming out of nowhere. Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition received extensive backlash at launch for various issues (despite being successful for the parent company). It’s also received flak for issuing takedown notices for PC mods in Grand Theft Auto 5, not to mention criticism for some of its GTA Online decisions.
However, considering how much of an impact review bombing can have (see Helldivers 2), this may be Take-Two leadership chalking it up as something to keep in mind. As for whether it’s anticipating some backlash to Grand Theft Auto 6 from fans, time will tell.
Grand Theft Auto 6 launches in Fall 2025 for Xbox Series X/S and PS5. Its reveal trailer recently crossed 200 million views.
