Microsoft paid $50 MILLION for GTA IV Downloadable Content

[VipeNess]

Microsoft paid $50 MILLION for GTA IV Downloadable Content

From a conference call held with Take 2's CFO last week: "The first 25 million is for the first episodic content package that ?s supposed to go out and that is in March of ?08. That?s why it moved into current because it?s in the next 12 months. The second 25 will be for the second episodic, the episode, and that will be later in fiscal ?08."

SOURCE

[h3xis]

Chump change to them.

[mattmatik]

Damn, so GTA IV will take a year to beat!

Let's up hope the "episodic content" is, in fact, episodic content. Not just some new clothes or items.

[DigitalE]

Chump change to them.

Yeah, no kidding.

[AlphaPrime]

That's a bit much for just extra content. That's like the budget for 2 full games. Is the average consumer going to even know about the DLC? The first episode won't be available until months after the launch, so how are they going to advertise it as something extra over the PS3 version? I don't buy DLC, so this wouldn't sway me, although I was going to get the 360 version anyway.

I wonder what the length of the episodic content will be.

[acies]

Damn, so GTA IV will take a year to beat!

Let's up hope the "episodic content" is, in fact, episodic content. Not just some new clothes or items.

Iam guessing it's intirely new areas or story missions. They have already said it's not just a new car or weapon.

That's a bit much for just extra content. That's like the budget for 2 full games. Is the average consumer going to even know about the DLC? The first episode won't be available until months after the launch, so how are they going to advertise it as something extra over the PS3 version? I don't buy DLC, so this wouldn't sway me, although I was going to get the 360 version anyway.

I wonder what the length of the episodic content will be.

Well I am guessing this could be a big selling point of Xbox Live. I am not sure but I think you actually have to have a gold account to be able to buy stuff on XBL??

[AlphaPrime]

Well I am guessing this could be a big selling point of Xbox Live. I am not sure but I think you actually have to have a gold account to be able to buy stuff on XBL??

You can buy stuff with just the Silver account as well.

[Nightz]

good for the 360 to score exclusivity, and yes it's chump change to microsoft...but more than likely this content will come at a high cost to those people who will buy it :pinch:

[Smigit]

That's a bit much for just extra content. That's like the budget for 2 full games. Is the average consumer going to even know about the DLC? The first episode won't be available until months after the launch, so how are they going to advertise it as something extra over the PS3 version? I don't buy DLC, so this wouldn't sway me, although I was going to get the 360 version anyway.

I wonder what the length of the episodic content will be.

It's a move to boost console sales, not games. The game itself will sell regardless of there being episodic content or not and those not wanting the game wont buy it because theres two addons that will also cost them money. What having the content will do but is act as an incentive to those on fence undecided whether to get a PS3 or Xbox. The GTA series is a console seller, for many people more so than Halo of GOW, so it makes sense for MS to have a more attractive version of the game feature wise for fans to compell them to buy the 360.

The problem as I see it but is they are really going to have to hammer home the fact that this version will have exclusive addons due to the fact the addons wont be arriving until post Xmas. People are going to be buying consoles to play this over Xmas and if they are oblivious to the fact there will be exclusive addons many may go the PS3 way where they otherwise would have gotten a 360.

Someone mentioned XBox live too. The fact the game is multiplayer enabled will mean you need a gold account to play online. The content can be gotten on silver but it still may have the effect of boosting gold subscriptions if the game is able to get people buying 360's just to play this and then they in turn want to play online.

[obsolete_power]

This is happening very quickly lately....All these games are getting downloadable content. Way to go Microsoft. It is a good way to refresh titles. I can't wait to see Halo 3.

[Ayepecks]

Why is "MILLION" capitalized? I figured it wouldn't be "THOUSAND" or "BILLION" ;) lol

[Ji@nBing]

Think what they must have payed to sway them away from PS3 exclusivity in the first place. I would say it cost MS close to $100 million to get it on the 360 plus the exclusive content.

[Matrix XII]

This is good news for 360 owners! Personally I other than trying to boost console sales, I think MS is using this as an extra incentive to get XBL, and they make big money there.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

Wow, lets hope the game is actually worth it :p

[Smigit]

Think what they must have payed to sway them away from PS3 exclusivity in the first place. I would say it cost MS close to $100 million to get it on the 360 plus the exclusive content.

Maybe but maybe not. It could be more to do with what Sony DIDNT (and I dont just mean monetry wise) offer them than what MS did. MS has alot more consoles on the market now so developing a game for the xbox makes more sense as you have a larger reach. The past few releases were timed exclusives, all ended up on the Xbox at some point but with the PS2's sales figures and any incentives Sony had offered that was a good choice. This time Sony could offer them money but with that many few consoles on the market Rockstar are probably better off just getting the game on the console than they are releasing it in 18 months when people wont really care anymore.

Also if they wait they run the risk of letting other companies take a part of the market that they used to dominate. Now days the 360 has saints row and crackdown and if they spawned sequals and were quality people may not even care about GTA if it gets released 18 months late due to an exclusivness offer. By then the game might be seen as an old PS3 port and people will go towards the newer alternatives.

Edited June 19, 2007 by Smigit

[George P Global Moderator]

Who knows what Sony pays for it's exclusive 3rd party games. Or what MS pays for its games to, that's just the price of business. The fact we're actually getting a number ammount for the first time for one of these deals seems to be making a big fuss.

You'll just have to wait and see how big the episodic content is, if it's like 5-6 new story missions, with new voice audio and so on, then it's worth the cost to make. And that's how I think it'll be, think HL2 episodes, which is why it takes long to bring them out. GTA is the perfect type of game to have this episodic model used for it. I can't wait to see what they do.

[AlphaPrime]

It's a move to boost console sales, not games.

Maybe, but I don't think it's the most effective way of doing that. A price drop would boost console sales much more than some DLC. Main problem is though, most people who buy GTA don't even know about this extra DLC. They'll need to advertise it.

[spenser.d]

Maybe, but I don't think it's the most effective way of doing that. A price drop would boost console sales much more than some DLC. Main problem is though, most people who buy GTA don't even know about this extra DLC. They'll need to advertise it.

Uhh, you're talking about Microsoft here, I'm sure they've thought of that and I'm sure they have a marketing strategy. The game doens't come out for another 4 months - they have time.

-Spenser

[gunnerhkjp]

This is good news for 360 owners! Personally I other than trying to boost console sales, I think MS is using this as an extra incentive to get XBL, and they make big money there.

If MS makes big money with XBL using this exclusivity, then its NOT good news for 360 owners :laugh:

It doesn't make me feel good since we'll be paying for this.

I guess they'll find creative ways to get more money out of us.

[AlphaPrime]

Uhh, you're talking about Microsoft here, I'm sure they've thought of that and I'm sure they have a marketing strategy. The game doens't come out for another 4 months - they have time.

Well their marketing hasn't always worked, it depends on whether consumers want to pay $40-$60 on DLC for 1 game. Either way, Rockstar sure is going to make a load of money from GTA4. I wonder when we'll see the next GTA after this one.

[Nightz]

If MS makes big money with XBL using this exclusivity, then its NOT good news for 360 owners :laugh:

It doesn't make me feel good since we'll be paying for this.

I guess they'll find creative ways to get more money out of us.

i agree, and i think that's the problem with all this exclusivity stuff. ms is paying so much to get these exclusive deals, and sure they have bottomless pockets, but they're going to try to make the money back through the consumers. as an example, have you guys seen the special bundle for ace combat 6? the flight sticks are awesome, but the whole bundle will cost $150! someone please try to justify that :pinch:

i guess my point is...don't expect these downloadable episodes to come cheap :(