Judging by all the talk from industry analysts and pundits over the past few years, GTA 6 is going to make infinite money – but it could make infinite plus a little extra if there were some in-game advertising, right? Don't worry, because even Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick knows everybody would hate it if Rockstar's latest open-world game was suddenly rife with product placement.
"We need to be true to the underlying intellectual property and we need to be true to our consumers," Zelnick says at the iicon conference in Las Vegas, according to IGN. When it comes to the GTA series, "it's a fictional world and everything in it is fictional. So we don't have, for example, we're not even at risk of doing brand partnerships because all the brands are made up. And I think that keeps us pure."
Fake brands have been a pretty essential part of GTA's satire for years. It's not exactly subtle stuff – I'm still trying to figure out what to take away from the in-game Krapea brand besides "somebody at Rockstar really hates Ikea" – but I've at least admired touches like GTA 4's version of the Statue of Liberty holding a giant coffee cup. I doubt Starbucks would be happy if its actual logo appeared on a takedown of American iconography.
"Everyone knows if you push too hard with partnerships it's a disaster," Zelnick adds. He offered a vague example of a TV show, which he declined to name, where the prominent placement of a beverage can was "too much." There's probably more than a few shows that could fit that bill, but I can't help but think of that New Coke scene from Stranger Things.
Zelnick had quite a bit to say at iicon, promising that GTA 6 marketing is about to spin up again "soon," addressing price concerns, and doubling down on that November 19 launch plan. At least we know it won't get delayed to slide in a new McDonald's crossover.
