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.