If GTA made money on controversy, it isn't the SJW one (I didn't actually know there was any SJW controversy about it actually). Gotta remember your history. GTA controversy peaked in the old Jack Thompson days, when every other person's parents were totally against their kids playing that game based on this assumption that it was just about raping prostitutes and shooting cops. GTA 3 is where that shit became a household name.

If it means anything for this specific situation, I've never even heard of Huniepop or Hatred, but GTA is not only an easily pointed to video game franchise for me, but I'd be willing to bet it's one of the most recognizable in the US for no other reason but because 3 was in the news so often. Ask your parents, you grandparents, about Huniepop or Hatred and they'll look at you side ways. Ask them about GTA though...

As for whether or not a recognizable brand name sells... it does, if the recognizably comes with a lot of positive attributes. That's kind of why we have brand names. That it fails to do so sometimes doesn't mean it fails to do so all of the time, the so the failure of a Mass Effect 3 disproves the efficacy of brand names as much as a failed liver transplant disproves the entire practice of liver transplantation in general. You couldn't explain the phenomena of Star Wars 7 any other way but brand name. GTA goes down with Mario as one of the truly renown franchises that has the ability to sell based on brand name. So yeh, brand name is important. [url=https://www0.gsb.columbia.edu/mygsb/faculty/research/pubfiles/593/The_Chain_of_Effects.pdf](cite)[/url] and [url=https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/emerald-publishing/the-relationship-of-consumer-personality-trait-brand-personality-and-XXkh2zBsWq](Cite 2)[/url]. 

I don't perceive the SJW thing to have penetrated general society as much as people on the internet want to think. I based this on the fact that I've [u]never[/u] seen it mentioned offline. And that isn't an exaggeration, I have literally never seen SJW anything come up in the real world as I have experienced it around me, not in conversation and not in practice. It seems one of those things, like the fascism of /pol/, that thrives online since the internet naturally magnifies behaviors. That College kids occasionally protest stupid shit isn't a new phenomena, and since news articles about college kids setting up safe spaces is about as close as I've seen this movement touch the real world (and i've never seen a safe space), I'm gonna assume the SJW movement is and will remain and irrelevant boogieman. I can believe it affects the sales if small-time games, but the GTA franchise is a giant for whom the majority of players aren't going to be aware of what an SJW is or what they do.