Activision marketing chief says GTA VI will help Modern Warfare 4
Activision CMO Tyler Bahl told The Game Business that GTA VI will bring players back to their consoles and give Call of Duty more attention, not less. He also called GTA and COD the two biggest games of the year.
Activision's chief marketing officer, Tyler Bahl, says Grand Theft Auto VI will help Call of Duty rather than bury it. He said this in an interview with The Game Business, and IGN, Insider Gaming and GamesRadar+ all reported his comments today.
Bahl was asked whether GTA VI and the Switch 2 exclusive remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, both out in November, could turn into a video game "Barbenheimer" that leaves Call of Duty in the shade. He didn't think so: "Well, no offense to Zelda, but [GTA and COD] are the two biggest games of the year."
His argument is that a big release lifts everyone. "More people coming in to the dashboards, more people taking the dust off their Xbox or PlayStation and starting to play again, and loading up that experience, is going to be more eyeballs for us overall," Bahl said. He added that more talk and more press about games "is going to be good for everybody, not just us." IGN reads this as a bet that GTA VI will push PS5 and Xbox Series X/S sales, and that Call of Duty will benefit from those new console owners.
Bahl was also unusually frank about last year. He admitted that Black Ops 7 was a disappointment and that releasing sequels from the same sub-brand back to back did not work. Activision says a future game will start a new sub-franchise.
The early numbers are mixed. Circana analyst Mat Piscatella puts US purchase intent for Modern Warfare 4 at around 15% of console and PC players, against 10.4% for the Ocarina of Time remake. Piscatella points out that Ocarina only runs on Switch 2, so measured per potential player, intent for it is far higher. GamesRadar+ notes that interest in Modern Warfare 4 is down from Black Ops 7, and in its own commentary calls GTA VI "Godzilla" next to the other two. Zelda fans may decide for themselves how much offense to take.
This is the view of a rival publisher's executive. Early access to the Modern Warfare 4 campaign opens tomorrow, October 16. The Ocarina of Time remake follows on November 5, and GTA VI launches on November 19, 35 days from today.
