Microsoft UK rolling out Halo 3-sized campaign for GTA IV

by Kyle Orland { Apr 17th 2008 at 6:00PM }

It should come as no surprise that the impending Grand Theft Auto IV is going to have a marketing campaign that rivals the absolute onslaught that accompanied Halo 3's launch last year. What may surprise you, though, is that much of that marketing push will be coming from Microsoft, not publisher Take-Two or developer Rockstar.

"Rockstar will naturally be doing their own campaign to launch what obviously will be a massive title for them," Xbox UK Gaming and Entertainment Chief Stephen McGill told MCV, "but Microsoft sees GTA IV as a fantastic title to showcase how great Xbox 360 is." As such, McGill says Microsoft will be launching a campaign with "the same sort of scale as our Halo 3 campaign last year" to promote the Xbox 360 version's Live integration, Achievements and, of course, exclusive downloadable content. Judging by our recent poll on the subject, it doesn't look like it will take much convincing to get people thinking that the Xbox 360 is the system of choice for the optimal GTA IV experience.

Tags: grand-theft-auto-iv, GTA-iv, GTA4, gtaiv, marketing, microsoft, rockstar, take-two

Related From Joystiq

Gamasutra examines Gamerscore and game completion statistics
12 days ago
Halo Waypoint detailed, captured on video
21 days ago
Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg touts holiday exclusives, 360 sales growth in down economy
24 days ago

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Zeus.:God @ Apr 17th 2008 6:06PM

Well... I think we know where most of this game's sales will be coming from.

tmacairjordan87 @ Apr 17th 2008 6:11PM

That's a shame for them cause GTA games sell better on their own with little marketing than halo games do with massive marketing. Oh well it's not my money.

Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo) @ Apr 17th 2008 6:18PM

But keep in mind. When the mainstream person thinks of GTA, they think of Sony. Microsoft wants to change that, so it's understandable why they are doing this.

tmacairjordan87 @ Apr 17th 2008 6:19PM

I guess you have a point. In the end they will probably make way more money than what they spent on marketing cause every poll so far for platform choice is in 360's favor

LaughingTarget @ Apr 17th 2008 6:53PM

MS does get $10 every time someone buys GTAIV for their system, so why not try and get as many as possible?

Tiptup300 @ Apr 17th 2008 7:17PM

You scared me, I thought you were saying the campaign mode of GTA IV is like an hour long!

Tim The Enchanter @ Apr 17th 2008 9:57PM

Bound to happen I suppose. I agree, MS wants to pull it away from being seen as a PS game. Makes sense for them.

Word Up, North Korea! @ Apr 17th 2008 6:12PM

Judging by your polling, the PS3 is grossly overrepresented, so I think that MS actually needs to get out and advertise

Tiptup300 @ Apr 17th 2008 7:48PM

yes because everyone reads [and believes] sonydefenseforce.com

Word Up, North Korea! @ Apr 17th 2008 7:54PM

Sony does not have 42% of the US console market share, but they got 42% of the vote in this poll...now obviously its not a scientific poll, but if this poll is accurate, which seems to be presumed by the post..then Sony is overrepresented

it's just numbers, d00d

Ninjakamster @ Apr 17th 2008 6:13PM

I really don't think this game needs much marketing. Or am I incorrect?

I guess Microsoft wants to make sure the PS3 version sells as little as possible?

They'll keep throwing the "EXCLUSIVE DLC!!!!!!!!" into UK gamer's faces.

ballistic @ Apr 17th 2008 6:16PM

make a Xbox360 GTAIV bundle. cause this is the biggest game this year and people on the fence are going to start moving. if they combine this and the marketing muscle it will get the lion's share of the GTA IV sales and consoles sales.

EmptyEnergy @ Apr 17th 2008 6:19PM

Granted, Halo 3's marketing was nicely done and very planned out. The dioramas were sweet and the soldiers reminiscing about a hero made me buy the game even more.

What more can they do with GTA than what they are now? Seems on the US side that it will be mostly internet based like Saint's Row. Can't have too many 'murder simulators' on prime time television now can we?

Draco @ Apr 17th 2008 6:21PM

I think Microsoft would be better off just cutting a check to Rockstar for $10 per game or something, if they can drop the xbox 360 price to 10$ below PS3, then it will sell on Xbox.

let Rockstar do the advertising.

Markusdragon @ Apr 17th 2008 6:46PM

Ironically, this is about the only game in the UK that's the same price on PS3 and 360.

skidawg @ Apr 17th 2008 6:22PM

but wait, there's a 360 shortage, so microsoft isn't expecting to sell too many consoles when gta comes out right? Expect 360's to "mysteriously" not be in short supply just in time for this release....ignore the fact that you see 360's on store shelves just about everywhere already....afterall, microsoft says there are shortages, so they must be right

Benny @ Apr 17th 2008 7:18PM

The supply issues are in North America, not in Europe, which may well be the reason that the advertisement push is based over here.

novel @ Apr 17th 2008 7:19PM

Millions of 360s have been sold.

You're kinda retarded

David @ Apr 17th 2008 11:04PM

There were REAL shortages in January, somewhat shortage in February, not much shortage in March.

pavs @ Apr 17th 2008 6:25PM

I love how joystiq keeps throwing their poll numbers into every GTA 4 related article. The difference wasn't that big, only 10% as I remember, and considering that people could vote more than once, made the poll results irrelivant.
I'm sure there will be more xbox copies sold than PS3, but thats because there are 18 mil xboxes compared to 10 mil Ps3s. And its actually kinda pathetic that Microsoft is trying to sell their system based on something that is available somewhere else. Thats almost as bad as the Last years PS3 commercials that showed MGS4 and GT5 and said Coming Soon in small print on the bottom.

If I had money to advertise something, it would the amazing taste of Peanut Butter Jelly Waffles. (yes, I'm eating them right now and my mouth is happier than Elves in Valinor)
Take Luck folks.

Ysleiro @ Apr 18th 2008 1:31PM

No its not because there are more Xboxes sold.

Its because XBox players buy more games. Period.

Look at how much Army of Two sold on PS3 versus Xbox. NPD says so.

Geist @ Apr 17th 2008 6:25PM

oh good. Because I had so much fun watching the Halo advertisement every single commercial break.

Haaaaate ad campaigns.

JRM @ Apr 17th 2008 6:30PM

Bad idea for MS to promote a multi-platform game. That is unless they paid money for Rockstar to cripple the PS3 version...

Ashley Allen @ Apr 17th 2008 6:40PM

The first ad is in heavy rotation now on most channels. I must of seen it at least 10 times tonight.

Unless Sony or Take Two do their own ads I think 'normal' people might start thinking it's 360 exclusive.

JonTheSchmidt @ Apr 17th 2008 6:46PM

I'd like to see some more Game Fuel. This time around with GTA themes?

Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo) @ Apr 17th 2008 7:17PM

Oh fuck yeah

Game fuel was awesome!!!

Benny @ Apr 17th 2008 7:19PM

In before some retard says this is because "M$ iz scared of the PS3!!!1".

Benny @ Apr 17th 2008 7:20PM

Just to clarify: of course they fucking are, it's a competitive market. Nintendo, MS and Sony all fear each other.

Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo) @ Apr 17th 2008 7:35PM

nicely put.

Benny @ Apr 17th 2008 7:38PM

Thanks.

bm @ Apr 17th 2008 8:08PM

Don't you just love being force-fed advertising until you get sick of the game before you even play it?

daniel @ Apr 17th 2008 8:22PM

after the recent price cuts, the 360 is significantly cheaper than the ps3, there are probably quite a few people who will be buying their first current gen console for gta 4, so microsoft want consumers to pick the 360, with the console price, the exclusive dlc and all the offers stores are running on the 360 version of gta 4 theres a lot of reasons to choose the 360