It’s hardly a secret that Sony and Rockstar have brokered a deal for GTA 6, but it appears that deal has prevented Xbox from even sharing the launch trailer at the same time.
PlayStation’s socials ahead of launch were plastered with Leonida branding, GTA 6 is front and center on the PS5 storefront, there has been a complete absence of Xbox logos in the latest trailer, and almost every ad insists the PS5 Pro is the best platform to play on. But the most absurd part of this deal is that Xbox just posted the launch trailer a full week after PlayStation, well after everyone had already watched it.
In fairness, Microsoft did develop Internet Explorer.
Xbox’s GTA 6 Launch Trailer Pulled In Only 3.85% Of PlayStation’s Views
Xbox clearly had its hands tied and could hardly skip sharing the launch trailer for GTA 6, but that week-long delay means that practically every comment and repost is now poking fun at the console giant for being late, laughing about how “NUTS” the PlayStation marketing deal must be. It doesn’t help that Microsoft’s version ends with a standard Series X/S logo and the stock fanfare, whereas PlayStation got a custom Vice City outro.
The view count gap is just the cherry on top: 2.5 million versus 65 million.
And no, before you angrily write up a comment about how much games journalists hate Xbox, or that the Sony cheque must have cleared, this isn’t a hit piece on Microsoft or some console war pot stirring. As a complete sucker for Quick Resume, and as an Xbox 360 ride or die (and maybe one of the only Crackdown fans left), I’m planning to play on Series X myself. It’s just a stark reminder of how far Xbox has fallen by the wayside over the last two generations, to the point where one of the biggest launches in the medium’s history is barely even throwing the console giant a bone.
Still, while Xbox might be lagging behind, CSO Matthew Ball said in a public spat with The Verge reporter Tom Warren that Microsoft is “very happy” with GTA 6 preorders and that they currently match its “share of the console market,” roughly 23%. “The title is breaking records for Xbox,” he said. “We expect even more records will be broken throughout the fall.”
