Xbox Dodges GTA 6 Marketing Ban with Custom Alligator Console

Rockstar Games’ upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI is one of the most anticipated releases of the year, but Microsoft finds itself unable to openly promote the title on its platforms. Thanks to an exclusive marketing agreement between Sony and Rockstar, only PlayStation is officially allowed to tout the game’s features. Instead of staying silent, Xbox has crafted a bizarre and eye-catching workaround: a custom Xbox Series X hidden inside a massive animatronic alligator.

Dubbed the Xbox Series X-BITE, this one-of-a-kind creation measures over five feet long. The console rests within a meticulously sculpted gator, its iconic green glow visible through a translucent “Xbox Nexus” embedded in the creature’s torso. A matching wireless controller, complete with simulated bite marks, is clamped between the alligator’s jaws. The entire piece was built by John Nolan Studio, a prop house known for crafting creatures for series like The Witcher and films such as Jurassic World Dominion.

Microsoft isn’t selling this reptilian rig. Instead, it’s giving away the X-BITE through a sweepstakes, a promotional tactic the company has often used for limited-edition hardware. The accompanying blog post carefully avoids any direct mention of GTA 6, Rockstar, or Vice City. It merely states that “this November, Xbox is heading to Florida,” a thinly veiled nod to the game’s Leonida setting. The tease didn’t go unnoticed: Giant Bomb co-founder Jeff Gerstmann joked on social media about playing “Big Florida Crime 6” on a gator.

For players, the stunt highlights how fiercely console makers compete for association with blockbuster games. While Sony’s deal secures official marketing, Xbox’s guerrilla approach generates its own buzz. Performance-wise, most multiplatform titles run nearly identically on both systems, so the real difference may come down to which company’s antics you find more entertaining.

What do you think of Xbox’s alligator gambit? Would you enter a sweepstakes for a console that doubles as a swamp creature, or is this just a strange footnote in the GTA 6 hype cycle?