GTA 6 has not started marketing yet: the two billion question and the fall nobody can schedule around

GTA 6 is already the biggest launch Colan Neese's team has tracked since they started measuring in 2019, and it is on pace to pass Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's peak roughly two months before it ships. Here is the part nobody is pricing in. The marketing has not started. Everything the industry has reacted to so far was aimed at the industry. The campaign built for people who have never watched a games showcase in their lives begins at NFL kickoff.

Greg Posner and Colan Neese, SVP of gaming at Screen Engine/ASI, spend the hour on what that does to everyone else. Whether the number in the launch press release is one billion or two. Why every other fall release is losing oxygen rather than losing on quality, including a Call of Duty that Greg played and liked. And the thing Rockstar is quietly doing to protect the players it already has, which is the only defense on the table that does not require a marketing budget to run.

They also get into why Sony's Tokyo Game Show State of Play reads as a completely different show depending on which continent you are watching from, why consoles took hold in the West for reasons that turn out to be mostly about living room square footage, and how Guitar Hero used to turn songs into hits before games traded the needle drop for interchangeable orchestral filler.

Then they argue about Weezer.

(00:00) Show open

(00:45) Sony's State of Play, and who it was actually for

(09:47) Why your game does not travel: China, mobile, and the space a console needs

(17:15) The billion dollar question is already stale

(21:02) The bite GTA 6 takes out of the box office

(25:36) The marketing has not started yet

(27:58) Call of Duty is not losing on quality

(32:29) What Rockstar is doing to protect the players it already has

(39:20) Stage Tour, and the return of the rhythm game

(40:17) The ideal set list, and an argument about Weezer

(48:09) How games forgot to use a song

(51:20) Wrap

Full write-up and notes from this episode:

https://playerdriven.io/live/gta-6-has-not-started-marketing-yet

The Operator's Briefing, every Tuesday. One email: the best thing we published, the next thing we are doing, and one open argument.

https://playerdriven.io

Bring your own read to the room. Colan takes questions in the Discord, and genuinely wants the argument.

https://discord.gg/GC5PkbKFH

Colan Neese writes Patch Notes:

https://patchnotesgaming.substack.com