There were a lot of rumblings that Thurdsay would bring a new GTA VI trailer, as we get closer to the game’s November release date. Well, there wasn’t one, but there was something else, and it’s interesting.
Rockstar announced that Grand Theft Auto VI will have an “extended look” three weeks from now, on August 27. The twist here is that it will premiere first on Netflix at 3 PM ET. Don’t have a Netflix subscription? Well, it will go online on YouTube six hours later at 9 PM ET.
Netflix is very excited about this “first of its kind” partnership, and the fact that it goes up on YouTube six hours later is not mentioned in the Netflix press email or ensuing blog post. This is what Brandon Riegg, VP of Netflix Nonfiction Series, had to say about the deal.
“Grand Theft Auto reveals have become cultural moments in their own right. The anticipation and fandom around Grand Theft Auto VI is unprecedented, and we’re honored that Rockstar Games has partnered with us to debut the next part of the Grand Theft Auto story with Netflix members first. It’s a reflection of what we hope Netflix is becoming: a place where the most ambitious storytelling, from any medium, can find the biggest possible audience.”
He’s not wrong; these reveals are cultural events. The GTA VI trailers have not been tied to any particular games showcase. Rockstar drops the trailers; they get a hundred million views; and everyone talks about them indefinitely. Fans, however, have wondered why marketing for the game has felt pretty muted outside of two trailers just over four months before launch. It would seem this event is going to change that.
It’s a unique idea. The six-hour exclusivity window is kind of funny, as I have to wonder how much Netflix paid for that. You can bet during those six hours it will be fighting thousands of bootleg YouTube copies. Come to think of it, premiering the trailer on Netflix will prevent anyone from embedding that trailer in an article, myself included. So enjoy the link to the Netflix page, I guess.
This seems like it’s definitely more than just a trailer, some sort of vidoc going deeper into the game and its systems, something we have not seen at all outside of insider rumors of what kinds of things may be coming. And there really haven’t been that many of those with any weight to them.
If this idea is a big hit, Netflix will no doubt share the numbers after it airs. I’d say they might try to do this again, but there is no other game even remotely the size of GTA VI. I might think movies could work, perhaps, like an Avengers: Doomsday trailer, but obviously that would be on Disney Plus.
So, see you in three weeks, or three weeks and six hours, depending on your subscription status.
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