Brands’ interest in “Grand Theft Auto” is mounting — but questions about brand safety remain

With “GTA 6” on the horizon, brands’ inquiries about the game have steadily increased, according to five agency executives who spoke to Digiday for this article. (Rockstar Games representatives did not respond to requests for comment.)

“While this doesn’t speak for every brand, many brands are aware that ‘GTA 6’ will be a massive release,” said Publicis Media svp of gaming strategy and innovation Samantha Lim. “Brands are interested in understanding more about the game and how it will impact the industry and consumer lives. However, while the game rating is currently pending, we can assume that it will be rated M/18-plus, which may make it challenging for some brands to activate.”

The state of play

“Grand Theft Auto” has been a best-selling video game property since 1997, but advertising opportunities in past iterations of the game have been few and far between. Instead of licensing brands and products from the real world, for example, the game’s developers infamously filled its virtual world with parodies of famous brands. Rockstar Games has doubled down on this approach for decades, and longtime observers of the space are skeptical that this policy will change in “GTA 6.”

“I personally don’t believe that they will be introducing brands into the main game,” said longtime “GTA” and “Fortnite” content creator Andre “Typical Gamer” Rebelo. “They’ve had the opportunity to do it so many times, and they haven’t. And they’re a company that sticks to their guns, right? They have their values, and that’s one of them.”

Although it remains unclear whether Rockstar’s stance toward brands will soften for “GTA 6,” members of the “GTA” community believe that the game developer’s decision to acquire the popular game modification FiveM in 2023 is an endorsement of the game’s creator ecosystem. FiveM allows players to host and join multiplayer servers, or virtual worlds, in which hundreds of users can play together simultaneously.

Chris Hopper, COO of talent management company Loaded, which operates the “GTA 5” role-playing server Prodigy RP, said that his team has a “good relationship” with Rockstar and has met with the developer numerous times since launching the server in 2023.

“From an official standpoint, Rockstar has been fairly careful in what they are and aren’t promising, in terms of what’s going to be included in [‘GTA] 6,’” Hopper said. “I think if you step back from the conversation and instead look at their pattern of behavior of the last 18 months, they have clearly demonstrated a greater desire, at a corporate level, to be more involved in ‘GTA’ RP [role-playing].”

A creator ecosystem

“Grand Theft Auto” already has a robust creator ecosystem, located almost entirely inside role-playing servers operated through FiveM. Much like creators in “Roblox” or “Fortnite,” users can build custom virtual worlds, then play inside them with hundreds of users, charging players subscription fees in exchange for priority access and in-game items. Rockstar’s acquisition of FiveM’s parent company in 2023 indicated the company’s official support for the “GTA” role-playing ecosystem and its creators.

Thanks in large part to the popularity of “GTA” role-play, “Grand Theft Auto V” is the most-watched game on Twitch. Role-playing servers such as Prodigy are looking to take advantage of this engagement and attention by standing up advertising inventory around the game, even if not directly inside it. Prodigy, for example, has started meeting with brands to pitch inventory such as stream overlays and social media mentions. Hopper said that he had not signed any deals yet and declined to specify exactly which brands he was speaking to due to the ongoing nature of the conversations.

“We have not had any inquiries there, and we have also had a bit of a difficult time even monetizing sponsored partnerships around GTA content to date, because of the nature of the content,” said Ryan Dow, vp of gaming, creator and esports for agency Sportfive. “Some people just don’t know what to do with it — how do I effectively communicate my brand to this audience without coming across like I’m really supporting the gameplay itself?”

With “GTA 6” shaping up to be the most creator-friendly iteration in the series so far, some creators anticipate that it will allow for more in-game brand activation opportunities, which have become widespread in “Roblox” and “Fortnite.”

“The fact that ‘GTA’ is set in a realistic environment is really big for a lot of people,” Rebelo said. “I think Rockstar also has a chance to have deeper UGC tools available at launch than other platforms, even ‘Fortnite’ itself.”

The brand safety question

Indeed, although marketers are becoming aware of the potential opportunity in and around “Grand Theft Auto,” traditional brand safety considerations have kept many of them from diving into the space headfirst. Hype train notwithstanding, “GTA” is still a game focused on themes of crime and violence, and the series itself is named after a felony.

But brand safety is gradually becoming less of a concern for marketers, making the edgier ad inventory available in and around “GTA” into a potentially more attractive prospect as time goes on. Dow, the Sportfive executive, said that his clients have professed an increased level of comfort with the fictional violence inside games such as “GTA” due, in this particular case, to the massive amount of hype and attention around its impending release. Gamers have decided “GTA 6” is worth celebrating, and brands are looking to follow suit.

“We don’t have to celebrate the gameplay itself; we can celebrate the moment that is the release of this highly anticipated game, where some of these brands are starting to be a little more flexible in their mindset,” Dow said.