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Update: Martyn Ware has clarified that the GTA 6 music deal his band was offered amounted to $7,500 for each of the song's three writers.
In response to a tweet about the offer, Ware, singer of band Heaven 17, confirmed that the deal was not $7,500 total, but "$7,500 each for three writers," amounting to a total payout of $22,500.
$7500 each for 3 writersStill utterly unacceptable Also $8.6B gross, not profit - but still…September 8, 2024
Regardless of that increased figure, however, it seems Ware is in no hurry to accept the deal. He confirmed in that tweet that the offer was "still utterly unacceptable," also clarifying that his previous comments about GTA 5's profit were not wholly accurate - the $8.6 billion figure he cited relates to gross revenue, not total profit.
Original story: Heaven 17 singer Martyn Ware claims that Rockstar Games only offered $7,500 to use the band's 1983 hit song Temptation in the upcoming GTA 6 "forever" - a proposition he refused because of GTA 5's outlandish success.
"I was recently contacted by my publishers on behalf of Rockstar Games [about] the possibility of using [the song] Temptation on the new Grand Theft Auto 6," Ware recently tweeted.
"Naturally excited about the immense wealth that was about to head my way, I scrolled to the bottom of the email re the offer…IT WAS $7,500." Ware says the offer wouldn’t net him with any royalty payments, and it gave the studio license to use the song in GTA 6 "forever."
"To put this in context, Grand Theft Auto 6 grossed, wait for it…$8.6 billion," Ware continued. "'Ah, but think of the exposure…' Go f**k yourself."
Rockstar Games' parent company Take-Two last announced that the blockbuster crimathon had sold over 200 million copies earlier this summer, though we don't actually know if that translates to $8.6 billion.
Either way, though, GTA 6 is primed to be the biggest thing on Earth next year. One analyst said GTA 6’s importance to the console market "cannot be overstated," while Take-Two's CEO himself reckons it could be "unmatched in the industry," so you’d expect the studio would up its music budget for a game that’ll continue printing money for at least a decade.
