Zelnick: the Extended Look Had “an Element of Tutorial Baked In” — and Marketing Cannot Make a Bad Game Good
Take-Two’s CEO told a GamesBeat event that the 27-minute Netflix show also taught people how the game plays, and that even GTA VI must be marketed hard because awareness is not enthusiasm.
Confirmed — these are Strauss Zelnick’s own words, from a fireside chat at the GamesBeat Insider event in New York on September 16, published by GamesBeat the same day.
On the Extended Look: “What Rockstar did was incredible, but there was an element of tutorial baked in there, right?” He said earlier GTA marketing used actual tutorials, and “this was just a different way of giving the same information.” Of the Netflix deal: “I think this was good for everyone involved.”
On why a famous game still needs marketing: “Awareness is one thing; enthusiasm is another thing. And we have to show people what they’re going to get.” On creators: “you can’t game the system. We cannot convince people [that] something that’s bad is good.”
The limit of this story: Zelnick talked about strategy, not dates or features. He announced nothing new about the game, a PC version or an online mode. GamesBeat says the full talk streams for its subscribers from September 21.
Corrected September 22, 2026: a quote was tidied without marking it. GamesBeat prints “We cannot convince people something that something that’s bad is good”; the added word is now in brackets.
Sources
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