GTA 6 Marketing Is Ramping Up Fast, With New Game Informer Coverage and a $400 Collector's Box on the Way

GTA 6 just got a batch of big updates, and it looks like Rockstar is finally starting to shift its marketing into a higher gear. Trailer 3 could be closer than a lot of people think, and there are also some interesting questions building about what happens after the game actually launches.

Game Informer is getting new access as soon as next week

We are getting more GTA 6 news as soon as next week. Game Informer is teasing a new look at the game with new screenshots and additional details expected to be released, and we have already gotten this new artwork featuring Jason and Lucia. Right now I do not exactly know how deep the coverage is going to be, but the timing feels important because Rockstar's marketing campaign is clearly starting to pick up.

Game Informer has apparently been given access to new material, and that could mean new screenshots showing more of Vice City and Leonida, new vehicles, interiors, side activities, weapons, or even smaller gameplay details that Rockstar has not spoken about publicly yet. We could also learn more about how the open world will work and what Rockstar has changed compared to GTA V in terms of the tech. Even if this is not a full gameplay blowout or trailer 3, it feels like another piece of the marketing campaign falling into place.

Billboards and building signage suggest the marketing push is accelerating

We are talking billboards, and literal signage on top of buildings, like with Vice City branding put on the place where the Miami Heat play, I believe it is. So next week could be pretty important, especially if Rockstar is slowly feeding out new information to different outlets before whatever the next major reveal ends up being.

I still think that another major GTA 6 trailer before release makes a ton of sense. Rockstar gave us the extended look back on August 27th, which showed us more of the game than we had ever seen before, including footage that had leaked online against Rockstar's wishes. But there really is not that much time left between now and November 19th, and there is still so much Rockstar could show, whether that is a proper launch trailer, another gameplay focused presentation, something showing activities around Leonida, more of Jason and Lucia, or the variety of weapons and vehicles.

Rockstar does not necessarily need to show us anything else. As I put it, "GTA 6 could probably release tomorrow with zero additional marketing and still be a massive hit," and it would still be the bestselling game of all time. But clearly they are not doing that, given the physical marketing appearing in Miami and pre-orders that have been live for a while. I am genuinely curious whether trailer 3 ends up being its own thing or whether the extended look already counts as that in Rockstar's eyes, and if there is one more trailer planned, the window for it keeps getting smaller. I would not be surprised at all if October becomes a massive month for GTA 6.

The $400 Vice City collector's box does not include the game

Rockstar also revealed a new Vice City themed collector's box, and people definitely have opinions about this one. It is priced at $399.99, and before anyone asks, no, the game is not included. Rockstar has actually written that directly on the store page, confirming GTA 6 will be sold separately.

To be fair, there is a decent amount of stuff in the box. You are getting a small figure of the game's alligator mascot character, Oakley frog skin sunglasses, a New Era Vice City hat, a Leonida Keys cross body bag that honestly looks like a fanny pack to me, a magnetic mirror, a shot glass, a Vice City swizzle spoon, a keychain, enamel pins, stickers, and a double sided souvenir poster showing Leonida. It sounds like Rockstar actually pulled that Leonida poster from view temporarily, which lines up with a previous leak. This is not one of those Rockstar collections where you pay hundreds of dollars for a steelbook and three stickers.

But I cannot lie, $400 is $400, and I completely understand why everyone is immediately focusing on the fact that GTA 6 itself is not in the box. Rockstar could easily have put a code in there. If you are spending $400 on a premium collector's package and then still need to buy GTA 6 separately, you are approaching $500 depending on which version of the game you buy, which is actually a lot. This is clearly aimed at the hardcore collector who wants all the Vice City merchandise, and some people will absolutely love it, but as I said, "I don't think anybody can just look at $400 and pretend that's cheap." We are still not even at launch, so there could be other collector's editions we do not know about yet.

Take-Two's Strauss Zelnick dropped a small but notable hint about PC

Rockstar has understandably spent basically all of its time talking about the PlayStation 5 and Xbox versions of GTA 6, but the PC version is still missing. This week, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick gave PC players another reason to pay attention. During Take-Two's annual shareholders meeting, Zelnick talked about the company's platform strategy and said PC is becoming more and more important, also noting that PC can represent a massive percentage of sales. Importantly, he did not announce GTA 6 for PC or give any release window, and Rockstar's own GTA 6 page still only lists PlayStation and Xbox.

So the question is no longer really whether GTA 6 comes to PC, it is how long PC players will have to wait. Historically Rockstar has made PC players wait a while. GTA V released on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in September 2013, and the PC version did not arrive until April 2015. Red Dead Redemption 2 had a shorter gap, releasing on consoles in October 2018 and coming to PC in November 2019.

Rockstar has done both a wait of over a year and one closer to a year, but GTA 6 is a different situation because PC gaming is bigger now than it was during the GTA V release, and Take-Two itself is openly talking about the importance of that audience. I think this becomes one of GTA 6's biggest post launch stories, and I am curious whether we end up waiting until the PS6 generation for a PC release, and how many separate versions of GTA 6 people end up buying, similar to what happened with GTA V. I would hope we only have to wait about a year, but it might end up being a lot longer.

GTA Online's future and the possibility of single player expansions

There is another reason I think the period after launch could be important, and that is what happens with GTA Online. Take-Two has continued emphasizing that the November launch is GTA 6's single player experience, while GTA 5's existing GTA Online keeps receiving updates. Eventually something has to happen though, since Rockstar has spent more than a decade building GTA Online and it is one of the biggest live service games in the industry.

What I am curious about is how Rockstar handles that transition. Does whatever comes next for GTA Online launch shortly after GTA 6, or does Rockstar let everyone finish the story first before revealing the new online experience? Could the PC version somehow be part of a second major wave, where in 2027 Rockstar starts a next chapter with the PC version, a new GTA Online, and major content updates, essentially giving itself a second launch moment? There is also the question of whether Rockstar waits for the next console generation, the PS6 and the new Xbox, before releasing online, and then waits even longer for PC after that.

As for the GTA Online we already have, I do not think Rockstar shuts it down anytime soon, and they will probably keep selling Shark Cards for it for the foreseeable future while slowly building whatever the next era of online becomes. There is also the possibility that if Rockstar pushes back the new GTA Online launch, it could use that time to support GTA 6 with single player expansions instead. That would be wild, though as I said, given how successful GTA Online has been, the hope for more single player story content is pure copium that I almost do not want to think about. Still, it would be really cool to get any kind of single player expansion content for GTA 6.

Do you think trailer 3 actually arrives before GTA 6 launches, or was the extended look all we are getting?