A U.S. military unit at Fort Stewart, Georgia, is incentivizing soldiers to re-enlist by offering a special bonus of four extra days off aligned with the launch of Grand Theft Auto VI in November. The 9th Brigade Engineer Battalion’s leadership believes that granting additional leisure time for soldiers to enjoy the latest installment of the popular video game series will encourage them to extend their service commitments.
The upcoming release of Grand Theft Auto VI on November 19 is anticipated to be a significant entertainment event of the year. Take-Two Interactive, the game publisher, has not disclosed pre-order sales figures, but CEO Strauss Zelnick described them as “unprecedented and astonishing.”
According to Lt. Col. Angel Tomko, a spokesperson for Fort Stewart, a career counselor within the army engineer battalion proposed linking a retention incentive to the game’s launch to remind soldiers of their re-enlistment deadlines. This unique approach aims to align incentives with soldiers’ interests and boost re-enlistment rates.
Soldiers within the battalion were informed through a memo that those who sign re-enlistment contracts before November 14 will be granted a “special four-day pass” coinciding with the release of Grand Theft Auto VI. The authenticity of the memo, dated July 28, was confirmed by Tomko, who mentioned that around 20 out of 130 eligible soldiers have already enrolled for the bonus, contingent on committing to an additional two years of service.
Grand Theft Auto VI has been generating excitement since 2023 when its initial cinematic trailer teased a return to the fictional Vice City, a parody of Miami, and an expanded array of Florida-based settings, including alligator-infested swamps. The anticipation for the game is evident as developer Rockstar Games plans to showcase gameplay footage in an extended trailer on Netflix, following a leak of potential footage by hackers earlier this week.
