Boss of Grand Theft Auto 6 publishers Take-Two Interactive has said the upcoming game won’t have any product placement or brand collabs.
Since Grand Theft Auto 5 launched back in 2013, product placement and collaborations with real-world brands have become more common in games. However in a new interview, Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick has promised Grand Theft Auto 6 won’t feature any of that.
Speaking to Variety, Zelnick said: “We need to be true to the underlying intellectual property and we need to be true to our consumers. It’s a fictional world and everything in it is fictional. So we’re not even at risk of doing brand partnerships because all the brands are made up. And I think that keeps us pure.”
Other Take-Two titles such as their NBA 2K series will continue to feature adverts for real-world products, sponsorships and “brand integration” activations though. “Brands naturally exist within the NBA. And as long as we present them in a natural way, in a way that’s consistent with what you’d experience at a basketball game, it’s great. It’s additive to the experience,” Zelnick explained.
Rather than advertise products, Grand Theft Auto games typically mock popular brands with their own parodies. Last year, it was reported Grand Theft Auto 6 would parody Whatsapp, Uber and Venmo after Rockstar registered a number of new website domain names.
After two delays, Grand Theft Auto 6 is set to launch November 19. Earlier this week, Zelnick revealed he’s expecting people to bunk off work to play the game on release day.
Grand Theft Auto 6 is expected to be the most expensive video game ever made. Earlier this year, it was reported Rockstar Games have spent more than £2.7billion while developing the follow-up to 2013’s Grand Theft Auto 5. One former developer claimed he spent 39 months making broken glass look more realistic in the game and last year, a report said Rockstar had spent between $200million and $300million to create hyper-realistic water in Grand Theft Auto 6 with a team of 20 working on the project.
Speaking to Variety, Zelnick said he was “scared” about the launch of GTA 6. “I think the minute you stop running scared, you better get a different job if you’re in the entertainment business. Because [if] you claim success before you have it – you will largely be wrong.”
In other news, creators of surreal British horror game Atomfall have announced a TV adaptation is officially in the works.
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