Despite the significant profits the title could generate and the use of similar tactics in other games from the publisher, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said in a recent IGN interview at iicon that Grand Theft Auto 6 will not include real-world product placement ads or branding. He claims doing this will enable the publisher preserve the integrity of the upcoming game and its development team.
“We need to be true to the underlying intellectual property, and we need to be true to our consumers,” Zelnick said. “And consumers have an intuitive sixth sense for something that’s real and something that’s not real. They can always figure it out.
“So in the case of GTA as a property, as you know, 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.”
According to public records indexed by the UK company registrar Companies House, Rockstar North, referred to as Rockstar Games UK Limited, has spent £1.6 billion (approximately $2.11 billion) to date on the development of Grand Theft Auto 6. However, Companies House noted that it does not have “the statutory power or capability to verify the accuracy of the information that companies send.” It also stated that “the fact that the information has been placed on the public record should not be taken to indicate that Companies House has verified or validated it in any way.”
