Gamers have rallied to Rockstar Games’ “Grand Theft Auto V.” Despite fans’ enthusiasm for pillaging, mayhem-making and other misdeeds in GTA’s virtual world, they happily poured over $1 billion dollars into publisher Take Two’s coffers in just the first 3 days of the game’s release.

The notorious franchise’s long and colorful history, as well as a Metacritic score of 97 out of 100, helped to stoke demand. An estimated marketing spend of $150 million didn’t hurt.

With a budget the size of Los Santos, it stands to reason that Rockstar would throw a few greenbacks at online promotion. Anticipating a state-of-the-art digital campaign, I decided to take a quick tour of Rockstar’s online channels. A handful of things jumped out:

1. Copious content. From videos to downloadable desktop wallpapers and music preview streams, the GTA V website is bursting with glossy graphics and rich content. Plenty to keep the hardcore happy. The commerce component is low-key with no prominent calls to action. A discrete “Order” link sits on the edge of the main navigation. It appears Rockstar made a decision to serve fans instead of selling to them. Works for me, but they may have overdone not overdoing it.
2. Major mobile. Rockstar knows that their audience lives on smartphones and tablets, so they’ve delivered a responsive, quality mobile website experience. The navigation is clean and provides easy access to bite-sized, mobile user-friendly media. Sounds obvious, but most miss it.
3. Video is vital. Rockstar’s investment in video assets is paying off. Clocking in at a hefty ~5 minutes, GTA V’s “Official Gameplay Video” has notched nearly 30 million views. In fact, every GTA V clip is driving significant engagement. That said, Rockstar’s YouTube channel is surprisingly ho hum. For whatever reason, Rockstar opted for a generic YouTube channel instead of shaving off a sliver of their budget to create a more exciting brand experience like Ubisoft’s YouTube hub. The stock YouTube look is out of character and a missed opportunity.
4. Sort of social. On the one hand, GTA V is everywhere you’d expect. On the other hand, the programming and presence is oddly inconsistent. Take the world’s largest social network: with 4.5 million fans, the official GTA V Facebook page is in business. Or is it? We counted an introverted 8 posts over the last 11 days since release. You might be thinking that all of the action is over on the parent Rockstar page, right? Wrong. Pretty much the same rhythm. Does GTA have a split personality? At a minimum, the brand voice reads choppy. Social integration with the brand site is also marginal; the site’s bounty of content should be easily shareable.
5. Credit for clever. Apparently, GTA is now so big that it needs its own social networking site. Ahead of GTA V’s debut, Rockstar launched Lifeinvader.com, a parody network featuring characters and brands from the new title. While tough to gauge the site’s success, Rockstar gets a nod for creativity.

Chris McGarry @cmcg

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