Grand Theft Auto VI is one of the most anticipated video games of all time, yet it will still receive a massive marketing campaign. According to Take-Two Interactive president Strauss Zelnick, this is not wasted spending, but an opportunity: the goal is not only to make sure everyone knows about the game, but also to turn anticipation into immediate urgency.

Take-Two Interactive has officially confirmed that the marketing campaign for Grand Theft Auto VI will begin this summer. The announcement thrilled many fans, because it not only confirms the November 19 release date, but also marks the real countdown to the game’s launch. Amid the excitement, however, some are asking whether all this really makes sense. Does GTA 6 truly need a massive promotional campaign? Even the company’s shareholders have asked the same question, given that the game has already achieved the hardest thing most products struggle with: generating enormous buzz without any direct financial investment.

Even The Most Famous Game In The World Still Needs Advertising

Strauss Zelnick, president of Take-Two Interactive, addressed the issue in an interview with GamesIndustry. “Investors have asked me if we really need to spend money promoting the game given the scale of the intellectual property, its reach, and the sentiment surrounding it. And the answer is, of course we do”, he said. The executive also made it clear that this will be a very broad campaign, and one that will differ significantly from the strategy used for Grand Theft Auto V. “It will reflect where audiences and the public are today. Thirteen years ago, we were still buying airtime on television networks. This time, we won’t be on TV as much”, he stated.

The same topic also came up during Take-Two Interactive’s call with shareholders, where several doubts regarding Grand Theft Auto VI were addressed. In that conversation, Zelnick said the company sees marketing as both an opportunity and a necessity, regardless of how anticipated a launch may be. To make the idea easier to understand, he even defended his position with a movie-industry metaphor.

“Imagine a new Mission Impossible release starring Tom Cruise. We all know what the movie is going to be like, and I know I’m going to see it. Likewise, Paramount spends tons of money promoting it to make sure everyone knows it’s out, that it’s phenomenal, and that it’s worth seeing. That’s the story of the entertainment business. There’s no situation where someone expects to have a huge hit and doesn’t still decide to invest in marketing”, Zelnick explained.

The Campaign Is Not Just About Making Sure Everyone Has Heard Of It

The explanation is simpler than it may seem at first. Marketing is not only about making a product known or generating interest around it. It is also about creating a sense of urgency. GTA 6 has already won many battles, but it still needs to convince less enthusiastic users that, after thirteen years of waiting, they should not wait another day. The task is to transform interest into urgency, motivating even more players to take part in the launch as soon as it happens.

PC players are a very specific example. They should not feel that they can comfortably wait for the game to be released on their preferred platform. A strong promotional campaign can send the message that the launch of Grand Theft Auto VI is not merely another product release, but an event so large that missing out immediately feels less attractive than joining in from the start.

A promotional campaign can also help raise the spending ceiling, which may be especially important if the game includes early access campaigns or special editions. It is also worth remembering that there is a huge general audience that is not as deeply familiar with the Grand Theft Auto series as the most dedicated players. From the company’s perspective, that audience still needs to be convinced that this is a major event they should not miss.

Finally, marketing spending is particularly easy to approve when a product’s success is practically known in advance. Even under pessimistic forecasts, Take-Two Interactive expects GTA 6 to increase its revenue for the current fiscal year by at least 20 percent, bringing it to around $8 billion. With figures like that, a strong promotional campaign is almost just a rounding item in the company’s accounts. Implementing one requires minimal effort compared with the expected benefit, while not doing so would be an unnecessary risk.

Source: 3DJuegos