In 2022, Bloomberg reported that “Rockstar Games cleaned its flatboy culture and also cleaned Grand Theft Auto.” The changes took shape in many ways, from reducing the gender pay gap for workers in the studio to introducing a Latina named Lucia, the first playable female character in the game. And now in the second trailer Grand Theft Auto 6we can see that the marketing of the game has also changed a little from previous entries.
To explain the difference, go back in time to marketing smash hits GTA 5It was released in 2013. The game’s first trailer was released in 2011. There were three main characters. Both the trailer has many narrations from career criminal Michael DeSanta (Ned Luke), who watches therapists as part of a Tony Soprano-esque midlife crisis. The trailer is primarily focused on action. There are major crimes involving an exciting car chase and a collaboration between the three main characters, but the other two don’t get as much screen time as Michael in these first two trailers.
The series’ sense of humor is not actually on display that it “distorts its series into teasing right-wing targets despite its infamous portrayal of sex workers and women in general.” But that’s clear GTA 5Early marketing was that the three main characters were extremely anti-heroes. You may be playing like them, but you are not necessarily going to go agree With what they do. That’s good. After all, you’re here to commit a crime and accept your ID, so it makes sense for someone to play as someone you can’t think of, right?
GTA 6Early marketing has a different vibe. These first two trailers focus on character drama rather than pure action. Jason and Lucia are also obviously anti-heroes and obviously rely on a life of crime, but these trailers also make them…well, likable. Lucia in particular.
first GTA 6 The trailer puts Lucia first on the front and center, creating a conversation that builds a simple character with someone who looks like a prison social worker. (It’s very easy to contrast this with the second opening GTA 5 Just before Michael’s narration begins, there is a trailer featuring two unknown women screaming at each other in the background. ) This focus makes sense considering that Lucia is one of our two lead roles. However, in addition to being the first playable female protagonist in GTA, she is also portrayed as sympathetic in this trailer. Along the way, Lucia tells the social worker that “bad luck” must have put her in prison, and she doesn’t seem to be making a joke there.
Second GTA 6 The trailer features more character constructions for Jason and Lucia. Jason seems to have a less likable pair, given that he has a moment of punching the black cashier before opening the register (which appears to be part of the duties he performs for his landlord friends who are making Jason live in exchange for this type of “rent collection”). However, he can’t hug Lucia after he picks up from Jason from a prison stint and then the pair slaps around the apartment together, and after Lucia gets home wearing her orange vest.
Another impressive part of the latest GTA 6 The trailer depicts police violence. In contrast, it’s here GTA 5The first trailer depicted the police. There is a simple shot of a black police officer driving a white man out of the building, then another scene in which the black main character, Franklin, runs away from a trio of police officers. Police are the second least common GTA 5 Trailer outside of siren noise in the background during a car chase. They are villains, yes, but that villain is not the focus of those trailers. And certainly not the “here is some visionary commentary on systematic racism” type method.
GTA 6The second trailer dedicates more precious seconds to a very different type of scene. As Jason drove slowly down the streets of the city, massive arrests fell in the background, multiple black suspects were taken into custody and several police cars were pulled onto the premises. We see a white police officer shoving one of these men in. Another officer has a black man pressed against a brick wall. In a later scene, we see a police character announce to the bullpen that “Our police officers, we have to protect each other.” The implications are clear. The police are like another gangster on the street, protecting their own. But more specifically, they are gangsters that imply that racists are bent. Put it along with Lucia’s imprisonment, and it all fits.
Image: Rockstar Game
The latest GTA 6 The trailer also includes a quick commercial for “Phil’s Ammu-Nation,” a gun shop the owner boasts of. “I got more guns than the law allows!” He picks up a rifle, two women with an American flag posing behind him, and also holds a rifle. The commercial then cuts into this man standing on the roof of his shop, blindly firing a bullet into the air, filming, “woo-hooo!” From the edits here it is pretty clear that we should hate this guy and everything he represents. And what he describes is “American patriotism.” fair enough.
Now we don’t know what GTA 6 In fact, you’ll have access to the full game and, to be precise, there’s a long time to wait for a year. But from the short scenes we have here, it is already clear that Rockstar’s marketing department has specific conclusions that they want to go home with these trailers.
And they are: The police cannot be trusted. America First Gun Nuts is a strange loser. Last but not least, Lucia is our hero She is The one you can most relate to in this story is the Latina woman whose “bad luck” put her in prison, something you should feel more sympathetic than judgement, and that life of crime may be the only way she can survive.
It sounds like a very different kind of GTA story. It also sounds like something attractive.
