Sumo

Sumo is visible in the Vice City region in two Grand Theft Auto VI promotional appearances. The first trailer shows an outdoor Sumo condenser mounted on the outside wall of a building in Stockyard. No timestamp is given for that shot.

An official screenshot places a Sumo speaker inside Real Dimez’ recording studio. These are the confirmed Grand Theft Auto VI appearances described so far: a building-mounted condenser in Stockyard and studio audio equipment used in the Real Dimez setting.

Sumo chiefly parodies Sony, while Samsung also appears to have informed the brand. Its lettering resembles Sony’s type style. The connection is especially clear in Grand Theft Auto IV’s altered retail signage: B&J Color TV stands in for J&R Color TV in Park Slope, Brooklyn, whose real signage advertises Panasonic and Sony products. The game’s version replaces Sony with Sumo.

The Grand Theft Auto Online version of the company also seems to draw from Philips. Its mobile-phone design is described as being based on an unnamed real-world model, so no precise handset reference is established.

Before its Leonida appearances, Sumo branding turned up in several cities through equipment, advertising, and commercial vehicles. In Grand Theft Auto III, its logo appeared on billboards in Staunton Island and Shoreside Vale, as well as on certain Yankee trucks. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City used the logo on Benson trucks.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas gave the company a more fixed business presence: Sumo operated from a building at the LVA Freight Depot in Las Venturas. Its sponsorship decals were also applied to Hotring Racer vehicles. In Los Santos, the Starland Camera Centre on Vinewood Boulevard in Market advertised Sumo cameras.

Grand Theft Auto IV used Sumo as part of the product advertising on B&J Color TV signs. The signage appears at the retailer’s Berchem location in Alderney and its Hove Beach location in Broker, where Sumo is displayed alongside Panoramic.

This use differs from the freight-depot building and vehicle decals seen in San Andreas. Rather than establishing a Sumo premises, the IV appearances present it as a television and electronics name carried by another retailer. Panoramic is the comparable electronics name shown with it on those B&J Color TV signs.

Grand Theft Auto Online broadened the brand beyond the earlier advertising and store references. Sumo banners at Benny’s Original Motor Works indicate that it also supplies automotive parts. Organizations can store and sell looted Sumo headphones called Ear Bleeds.

Ear Bleeds use an unusually shaped connector rather than a normal TRS mini-jack. Their name refers to the harmful result implied by repeated headphone use. The headphones and Benny’s banners are the stated Online-era evidence for Sumo audio products and vehicle-part specialization.