Whoever was in charge of the official French Netflix Twitter account last week either got very fired or very promoted. We've no clue how things work in these cases, but either way, one silly joke got the eyes of the entire gaming media locked on that feed after it namedropped what may arguably be the most anticipated unannounced game right now — Grand Theft Auto 6.
For a brief moment there, the account in question had the GTA fan community abuzz with speculation and hype following a tweet that inexplicably announced the new game in the series. While the existence of GTA 6 is practically fact, in so far as Rockstar Games has discussed it in development terms saying that the next GTA game will be a more modest release, it still isn't officially announced. Had this tweet been legit, this would have been the first — and rather spartan — official acknowledgement of the game.
https://twitter.com/NetflixFR/status/1381959363644981251
It was, however, just a joke. If the fact that it originated from an entity unaffiliated with Rockstar or Take-Two, simply tweeting out "Basically, GTA 6 is coming soon" at odd hours without any marketing fanfare didn't tip you off (which, wow), the joking responses to comments flooding in definitely would have.
With several whimsical responses, the account made it clear that no actual information about the upcoming GTA 6 is to be learned here. When someone asked when the game would be released, the reply stated "Between now and the end of the world". We'll be holding Netflix to that statement — maybe if Rockstar never releases a GTA game again the world will never end.
Apparently the French Netflix account has its own localized version of the "Soon™" joke that people use whenever something is announced without a release date, and the person in charge used it with glee, responding "Prochainement" to various users asking about a release date. Maybe this means we'll see the game before we hear news of Half-Life 3.
While goofing off with the apparent popularity of an IP created and owned by another company entirely just to earn hits definitely isn't a good look, the tactic definitely got the desired results. The joke tweet attracted a lot of attention, with excited fans sharing it among themselves and the gaming media reporting on the strange circumstances.
In any case, you definitely shouldn't take the original tweet at face value if that wasn't yet clear. Despite being an official account in a sense, Netflix definitely won't be handling any official announcements for Rockstar Games. The only real reveal will come from them, and you can definitely expect more hype and décor around the whole thing — we're speaking key art, a trailer, possibly an event — as opposed to it simply being a curt tweet popped out into the void unprompted.
That said, we wouldn't hate the prospect of Take-Two granting Netflix the license to develop GTA-related content. A while ago the company's interest in expanding additional media fronts was discussed among investors, and there was mention of licensing out IP for TV and movie purposes. Again, we don't suspect this tweet was any indication of such, but it would be an interesting avenue to follow.
If you want to learn what little we do know about GTA 6, check this out.
