Rockstar Games has put its marketing efforts leading up to the release of Grand Theft Auto 6 on November 19th into overdrive. A new social media account – dubbed “Only in Dade” – has been spotted that seemingly includes gameplay footage from the upcoming title. The footage itself features iconic Vice City street Ocean Drive, as well as a host of cars that people are looking at. In the background, the sidewalk has another person recording a similar video from a different perspective.
While this initially raised concerns about whether the footage was AI-generated, Rockstar Games itself confirmed that it is in-game footage by reposting it to its own Instagram story. In another twist, the video was seemingly created in an effort to recreate real-world footage that had been released last week. The original video involved Rockstar Games working with West Coast Customs to recreate the cars from GTA 6 in the real world. This, along with the fact that Only in Dade’s footage used a song from GTA 6: The Album, are clear giveaways that this is part of an elaborate marketing strategy.
In the meantime, Grand Theft Auto 6 is shaping up to be one of the biggest video game launches in the industry. Recent data from analytics firm Sensor Tower has indicated that the title has already crossed $1 billion in revenue through pre-orders alone thanks to 10 million sales across PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The split across the two platforms has heavily favored PlayStation, which has reportedly accounted for 75 percent of the pre-orders so far (roughly 7.73 million copies), with Xbox accounting for 25 percent (roughly 2.58 million copies).
Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick has also spoken about the future of Rockstar Games. Praising the company’s work during a recent earnings report call, Zelnick went on to offer some teases about what the studio might be working on.
“Rockstar has completed the development of GTA 6. That may not come as a surprise to you, since we’re 10 days away from the release. They have done their very best work, and it’s going to come to consumers soon. They’re in the middle of their marketing campaign, which also, unsurprisingly, is fully baked. At this point, it’s the job of the organization to make sure that we do an A+ job, technically, in delivering this product to consumers.”
“Then, of course, Rockstar will focus on what comes next, and they’ll announce that in the fullness of time.”
It is currently unknown whether Grand Theft Auto 6 will get its own version of GTA Online later, since Rockstar itself has been quiet about the matter. However, it is likely that the studio has been working on a new GTA Online, and the bigger questions revolve around its eventual release date. How the studio manages to migrate over the massive player base of GTA Online’s current iteration also remains to be seen.
While you wait for Grand Theft Auto 6, check out our thoughts on the reactivity of its world and the potential for the title to encourage players to get a PS5 Pro.
