GTA 6 Marketing: Take-Two Boss Compares Hype to Barbie Movie

Ever wonder why a game like GTA 6—which basically every human on the planet knows about—still needs a massive marketing push? Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick has a simple answer: awareness isn't enough. You need excitement.

In a chat with GamesBeat, Zelnick compared GTA 6 to 2023's Barbie movie. "All of us saw the Barbie movie, and they marketed the living daylights out of that picture. Even though the IP is very well known," he said. "They did a phenomenal marketing campaign. It was really everywhere, and, by the way, it worked." His point? Even a juggernaut can't coast on name recognition alone.

Zelnick explained that for any broad-based entertainment property, companies "don't have a choice" but to spend big to push a new release. "You always have to go out and create enthusiasm," he said. "So, awareness is one thing; enthusiasm is another thing. And we have to show people what they're going to get." That's why Take-Two isn't holding back on GTA 6's marketing, despite the insane hype already surrounding it.

Investors have apparently asked Zelnick why the company bothers spending so much when everyone already knows GTA 6 is coming. He recalled lessons from his movie-exec days: if your product stinks, "you can market the living sh** out of it, and people will still not notice the marketing." But if the marketing is bad, "you can turn people off." Get it right, though, and "you can create more excitement." The goal is always to "take awareness and turn it into excitement, and take the lack of awareness and turn it into awareness."

Speaking of clever marketing, Zelnick also touched on Rockstar's partnership with Netflix for the GTA 6 extended trailer. He called it a kind of "tutorial" to help fans see the game in action and understand why they should buy it. "What Rockstar did was incredible, but there was an element of tutorial baked in there," he said. "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." That's a pretty impressive feat, and it shows how Rockstar is evolving its marketing beyond traditional trailers.

GTA 6 is set to launch on November 19 for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, with a PC version expected sometime later. In other news, Rockstar just announced GTA 6: The Album, and unlike the game itself, it'll be available on a disc. So yeah, the hype train is full steam ahead.

What do you think of Zelnick's Barbie comparison? Will you be picking up GTA 6 on day one? Let us know in the comments!