Last month, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick confirmed that marketing for the long-awaited Grand Theft Auto 6 would begin in earnest this summer. He also reiterated that the game would reach its November 19 release date.
We are now officially two weeks into summer and as far as we know the marketing hasn't really started. At least not in a typical way. Take-Two and Rockstar may be doing things a little differently with GTA 6, however, as Zelnick just appeared in a TikTok video, once again confirming the November 19 date.
Grand Theft Auto 6 is coming on November 19, says Strauss Zelnick on TikTok
In what is clearly a scripted video on the School of Hard Knocks TikTok channel, Zelnick is approached by the host, who asks him, “How did you get rich?” After the host is surprised that Zelnick is Take-Two's CEO, the conversation moves on to Grand Theft Auto 6.
“When is GTA 6 coming?” he asks. “November 19,” Zelnick confirms.
Zelnick is then asked why the game took so long to release, to which he said, “The team at Rockstar is really trying to do something that's never been done before. It's really hard, and it takes a lot of time.”
The team at Rockstar is really trying to do something that has never been done before.
The CEO appearing in a popular TikToker's video could be the start of a completely different marketing campaign for Rockstar. The world has changed a lot since it launched its last title, Red Dead Redemption 2, and even more since it launched Grand Theft Auto 5. Short-form videos, like TikToks or Instagram Reels, have some of the highest engagement of any platform in the world, and it makes a lot of sense that Zelnick would want to use this.
In 2021, TikTok's average watch time per user surpassed YouTube's, and the gap between monthly active users on both has narrowed year-over-year. I'm willing to bet we'll be seeing a lot more of Zelnick and GTA 6 in short videos.
