•Rockstar’s upcoming GTA 6, releasing in November, is expected to have a major impact on the gaming market—and Activision believes it could also benefit its own titles, including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. That assessment comes from Activision chief marketing officer Tyle Bahl, who said in an interview that GTA 6 will draw more people into gaming overall.
“Plus people coming in to the dashboards, more people taking the dust off their Xbox or PlayStation and playing again, is going to be more eyeballs for us overall,” he told The Game Business. “Well, no offense to Zelda, but [GTA and COD] are the two biggest games of the year.”
Bahl’s reference to Zelda points to Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake for Switch 2, launching November 5. Like MW4 and GTA 6, it is expected to be a major hit.
Another publisher shares this optimism about GTA 6. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has said that when a blockbuster like GTA 6 arrives, it helps everyone in the industry. Ubisoft plans to release new content for Rainbow Six Siege around the time GTA 6 launches, per its own announcement.
Bahl also highlighted what he sees as Call of Duty’s key differentiator. “When we look at our research and say, ‘What is the most exciting things about our games? Is it the gunplay?’ It’s actually spending time with friends. And so, we stand on our own [in that regard],” he said. “If more people are talking about games, if there’s more press around it, that’s going to be good for everybody, not just us.”
He noted this dynamic should hold even though GTA 6 arrives just weeks after MW4 launches. According to Activision, Modern Warfare 4 releases on October 23, with its campaign unlocking early on October 16 for preorder customers. The full game—comprising the campaign, DMZ, and multijoueur—arrives for everyone on October 23.
GTA 6 is scheduled to arrive 27 days later, on November 19, for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
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