A US army battalion is offering time off to play GTA 6 as a re-enlistment incentive, and it’s unlikely to be the only one.
Given the massive hype surrounding GTA 6, it’s not just Rockstar that will be using the game for PR stunts, like the Netflix exclusive preview that’s airing next week.
Devolver Digital, for example, is insistent on releasing a new game the same day as GTA 6 (even after it was delayed twice) and one shop in Norway has offered a free copy for anyone whose baby is born on release day.
Now, word has spread that a United States army battalion is offering time off to play GTA 6 as an incentive for re-enlisting.
This originated from an Instagram account labelled US Army WTF Moments, which shared a photo of a memo claimed to be posted at the 9th Brigade Engineer Battalion in Fort Stewart, Georgia.
The memo says that anyone who signs a re-enlistment contract before November 14 can take four days off, which is expressly meant to coincide with the launch of GTA 6.
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It is signed by a Lt. Col. Ryan D. Hodgson and is explicitly described as an ‘incentive programme to promote retention, boost morale, and reward the continued dedication of the soldiers within the 9th Brigade Engineer Battalion.’
There is naturally some scepticism about the validity of the memo, but Kotaku was able to corroborate that several details are accurate, including the name of the commander and the communication numbers.
We’ve seen a couple of people argue that the memo is fake because the header features the logo for the Department of Defense when it should say Department of War, after US president Donald Trump rebranded it last year.
Others, however, have countered that the old name is still technically in use (a couple of government websites, for example, have not been updated to say Department of War), though we like one Redditor’s explanation for the discrepancy: ‘You think this government is so efficient as to update letterheads across all templates like that?’
Regardless, it’s not that unbelievable that a US battalion would use GTA 6 to coax people into reenlisting. In this Reddit thread, you can find examples of such incentives, ranging from extended leave and tax benefits to simple merchandise like ballpoint pens.
One Redditor claims something similar happened when GTA 4 launched in 2008, where almost their entire regiment got to take the day off so they could buy a copy.
We’re also reminded of stories of Japanese game developers temporarily closing their doors so their employees can play major new releases. And then there’s the old urban legend of Dragon Quest being so popular kids used to bunk off school whenever a new game came out, prompting a law to be passed stopping Square Enix from releasing games on a weekday (only the bunking off part of the story is actually true).
If any game could spark a similar obsession in the West, it’s GTA 6 as evidenced by its ‘unprecedented and astonishing’ pre-order figures. It’s estimated to make as much as $5.2 billion (about £3.8 billion) in just a week, which is roughly half of how much GTA 5 has made in its 13 year lifetime.