Don’t Expect Product Placement in GTA 6 — the CEO of Take-Two Says It Won't Do Real World Brand Partnerships Because 'All the Brands Are Made Up'

Grand Theft Auto 6 is poised to go the biggest amusement motorboat of all-time, perchance adjacent the best-selling crippled ever. So you’d deliberation determination would beryllium a immense accidental for Rockstar Games and genitor institution Take-Two to marque millions of dollars from in-game merchandise placement. But it sounds similar Take-Two is blessed leaving that other wealth connected the table, simply due to the fact that real-world marque partnerships wouldn’t acceptable successful the parody-packed satellite of GTA.

As fans of the bid know, GTA is simply a satire of American nine and culture, and arsenic specified includes parodies of existent satellite locations, companies, and products that often mock occidental consumerism. Some of these products are nonstop parodies of real-world brands. For example, Sprunk is fundamentally Sprite. Up-n-Atom Burger is simply a fictional fast-food concatenation successful GTA 5 that serves arsenic a parody of the real-life West Coast chain, In-N-Out Burger.

Speaking this week astatine iicon, a caller league for video crippled executives, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick ruled retired the anticipation of marque partnerships successful GTA 6 because, enactment simply, “all the brands are made up.”

“We request to beryllium existent to the underlying intelligence spot and we request to beryllium existent to our consumers,” Zelnick began. “And consumers person an intuitive sixth consciousness for thing that's existent and thing that's not real. They tin ever fig it out.

“So successful the lawsuit of GTA arsenic a property, arsenic you know, it's a fictional satellite and everything successful it is fictional. So we don't have, for example, we're not adjacent astatine hazard of doing marque partnerships due to the fact that each the brands are made up. And I deliberation that keeps america pure.”

Zelnick stressed that the concern with GTA isn’t the aforesaid arsenic it is successful 2K’s hugely palmy NBA series, due to the fact that brands “naturally exist” wrong the NBA successful the existent world. “And arsenic agelong arsenic we contiguous them successful a earthy way, successful a mode that's consistent, the mode the satellite would acquisition them successful a hoops game, it's great,” helium added.

It sounds similar Zelnick is good alert of the good enactment amusement indispensable tread erstwhile it comes to merchandise placement, saying “everyone knows if you propulsion excessively hard with partnerships it’s a disaster.” He pointed to a TV amusement that helium refused to sanction that had merchandise placement for a beverage tin that was “too much.”

While GTA 6 whitethorn extremity up missing retired connected in-game advertising, it’ll surely marque capable wealth for no-one astatine Rockstar oregon Take-Two to attraction excessively much. At the aforesaid interrogation astatine iicon, Zelnick addressed the much-debated question of however overmuch GTA 6 volition cost, and adjacent offered a slither of anticipation for an LA Noire follow-up.

GTA 6 is owed retired connected PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S connected November 19, 2026. Zelnick has antecedently indicated that selling for the crippled volition footwear into cogwheel successful the summer, arsenic fans desperately await GTA 6 Trailer 3.

Wesley is Director, News astatine IGN. Find him connected Twitter astatine @wyp100. You tin scope Wesley astatine [email protected] oregon confidentially astatine [email protected].