+Audioboxer Subscriber² Posted December 27, 2009 Subscriber² Share Posted December 27, 2009 The Xbox-exclusive episodic expansions to Grand Theft Auto IV received positive reviews (including from us), but one of the heads of GTA publisher Take-Two Interactive indicated yesterday some disappointment with their performance. "Both we and [Xbox-maker] Microsoft believe there was a big market for GTA IV episodic content," company CEO Ben Feder said during a call with investors on Thursday. "And some factors have affected their performance. Both were released significantly after the core unit ? GTA IV, which was launched in April of 2008 and therefore weren't able to leverage GTA IV's initial marketing campaign and initial launch fervor." The Rockstar-developed episodes, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, were released in February and October of 2009, respectively. Each cost 1600 points, or $20, at launch, and each included single-player campaigns that lasted more than a dozen hours, along with multiplayer and side content. Take-Two and Rockstar also released the episodes in October on a standalone disc entitled Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City. Sales figures have not been publicly announced for the Xbox-only disc, though Wedbush Morgan Securities analysts Michael Pachter recently pegged the sales for the disc in its first month on the market at around 100,000 units in the U.S., a far cry from the millions of copies sold of GTA IV. "Episodes From Liberty City seems to have been most appealing to those who have finished GTA IV and wanted more story and gameplay," Feder said. "Which is a smaller market than initially expected. Despite the dour analysis, Feder did praise the episodes' critical acclaim and said they were "profitable contributors to the company, so we're pleased with them." He said he thinks the episodes will do fine long-term. "There's very little precedent for this type of episodic content at the price point that we offered it. And so we're confident that these titles will continue to have a long life, just as we've seen a long life from all of our other prior GTA releases." Source: http://kotaku.com/5429648/take-two--grand-...tially-expected I mean a lot of people probably got put off due to never finishing GTA4 due to it's size, but exclusive DLC for such an even selling platform title like this was always going to be a stupid idea (For Take Two). Think you'll see those episodes go PSN side as soon as Take Two can sort the literature out with MS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xilo Posted December 27, 2009 Share Posted December 27, 2009 GTA is such a boring game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Hammond Posted December 27, 2009 Share Posted December 27, 2009 It was always going to have crap sales once Microsoft paid for exclusivity, instead of making it for both consoles and pc at the same time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+jamesyfx Subscriber² Posted December 27, 2009 Subscriber² Share Posted December 27, 2009 Personally the expansion packs are not even that interesting anyway. Perhaps if they were set in different cities - like the old expansions used to. Liberty City is big - but it's all old now. I grew tired of zipping down the same old streets and bridges long ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notta Posted December 27, 2009 Share Posted December 27, 2009 I was just having that discussion with my nephew yesterday. I went out and bought GTA 4 right after release and played it for about 15 minutes and I was bored. It's practically the same thing as the original. Boring now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Hammond Posted December 27, 2009 Share Posted December 27, 2009 Am i the only person that loved GTA4 and i mean A LOT, ive played and finished it about 5-6 times now. Dying for them to release both DLC on PC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krockett Posted December 27, 2009 Share Posted December 27, 2009 Yeah I bored with GTA all together I played it for a couple hours but it seemed like I had to force myself to play it... I wanted to like it but it just didn't do it for me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Explore Posted December 27, 2009 Share Posted December 27, 2009 Am i the only person that loved GTA4 and i mean A LOT, ive played and finished it about 5-6 times now. Dying for them to release both DLC on PC. I liked GTA4. I even got the "expantions" and finished them. Personally, i love the games like this TBoGT > GTA 4 > Lost and Damned Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Audioboxer Subscriber² Posted December 27, 2009 Author Subscriber² Share Posted December 27, 2009 Personally the expansion packs are not even that interesting anyway.Perhaps if they were set in different cities - like the old expansions used to. Liberty City is big - but it's all old now. I grew tired of zipping down the same old streets and bridges long ago. I think all it really comes down to is making DLC for a game that's going to sell millions on both platforms exclusive is always going to hurt your sales. Of course it might have prompted some more 360 sales due to people knowing about the DLC, but it's such a big game PS3 owners aren't just going to ignore it because they can't get DLC, they still get the same GTA4 experience, just get frustrated at DLC, very few of them are going to go shell out hundreds of dollars just for a 360 - Not everyone can afford to be a multiple platform owner. This will probably further down the future of exclusive 3rd party DLC, let alone games - When we're talking game changing DLC anyway, you'll always see minor exclusive DLC and what not. Both the PS3 and 360 are too common as developing platforms, as in lowest common denominators only have minor impacts, sometimes visual, sometimes framerate, sometimes online components, but 95% of the games/DLC can be ported between. Unlike the Wii which has nothing in common. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ew2x4 Posted December 27, 2009 Share Posted December 27, 2009 Am i the only person that loved GTA4 and i mean A LOT, ive played and finished it about 5-6 times now. Dying for them to release both DLC on PC. I loved it, but I haven't even finished the story. I always get side tracked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Mystic MVC Posted December 27, 2009 MVC Share Posted December 27, 2009 So if there were poor sales on the 360, wouldn't there have just as poor sales on the PS3 as well along with the added development costs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Audioboxer Subscriber² Posted December 27, 2009 Author Subscriber² Share Posted December 27, 2009 So if there were poor sales on the 360, wouldn't there have just as poor sales on the PS3 as well along with the added development costs? The engine is already running on the PS3 though? It's just new content in "GTA4". Say it sells 1 million on 360, and 1 million on PS3, at $20 a pop that's $40,000,000, any R&D for the DLC for the PS3 would never cost anything near that. A couple of thousand sales on the PS3 DLC would probably cover any sort of R&D/Q&A necessary, and you'd easily get that, both copies sold millions on each platform. I think this is also the last time MS is going to give/lend $50,000,000 out for something :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mokthraka Posted December 27, 2009 Share Posted December 27, 2009 Am i the only person that loved GTA4 and i mean A LOT, ive played and finished it about 5-6 times now. Dying for them to release both DLC on PC. I love it. when im bored or kind of ****ed off I pop that game in and just have some fun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Star Posted December 27, 2009 Share Posted December 27, 2009 They need to do something like Vice City again. That was my favorite GTA because of the way the city was and how the story and acting played out. The city was filled with hilarious things and a great funny story and that's what made it successful. GTA4 on the other hand, had a bland story about an immigrant wanting to have a life and by wanting a life got caught up in crap. Don't get me wrong, I liked GTA4, but story was bland = people stopping playing GTA4 = no one cares about DLC. :/ Also, DLC came out WAY too long after it was released, so that's a factor as people have moved on to better games. One console DLC hurt it also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Mystic MVC Posted December 27, 2009 MVC Share Posted December 27, 2009 The engine is already running on the PS3 though? It's just new content in "GTA4".Say it sells 1 million on 360, and 1 million on PS3, at $20 a pop that's $40,000,000, any R&D for the DLC for the PS3 would never cost anything near that. A couple of thousand sales on the PS3 DLC would probably cover any sort of R&D/Q&A necessary, and you'd easily get that, both copies sold millions on each platform. I think this is also the last time MS is going to give/lend $50,000,000 out for something :p Sounds logic enough but even with the extra PS3 sales, who's to say they would do any episodic content again? What are the official sales numbers for the 360? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scratch42069 Posted December 27, 2009 Share Posted December 27, 2009 Am i the only person that loved GTA4 and i mean A LOT, ive played and finished it about 5-6 times now. Dying for them to release both DLC on PC. Nope I played it and beat it on both 360 and PC and loved every minute. Also dying to play the DLCs on PC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Audioboxer Subscriber² Posted December 27, 2009 Author Subscriber² Share Posted December 27, 2009 Sounds logic enough but even with the extra PS3 sales, who's to say they would do any episodic content again? What are the official sales numbers for the 360? They never released them and probably never will. Michael Patcher estimated around 1 million. And of course they'd do DLC again, it makes money, but when you only release it on one platform out of three logic shows you you're only making "1/3rd" of your potential. But it's not just that to blame, Take Two did draw out GTA4, and the length of it put many off completing it and psychologically people see DLC as an extension they'd need to have completed the game for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hani Posted December 27, 2009 Share Posted December 27, 2009 Am i the only person that loved GTA4 and i mean A LOT, ive played and finished it about 5-6 times now. Dying for them to release both DLC on PC. You're not the only person. I'm one of the biggest fans of the GTA franchise, and IV didn't disappoint me at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rpsgc Posted December 27, 2009 Share Posted December 27, 2009 Disappointed? Boo hoo hoo, don't go exclusive next time. Release it for the PC already and quit whining you stinking muppets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InterceptorX Posted December 27, 2009 Share Posted December 27, 2009 Yeah, I'm ready for the DLC for PC! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corris Veteran Posted December 27, 2009 Veteran Share Posted December 27, 2009 I enjoyed GTA4, I didn't even think it was that long. Though It wasn't near as fun as GTA3, Vice City or San Andreas. Personally it felt like they sucked all the really fun random parts out of previous games, and replaced them with overly serious parts that were a bit meh in the end. It was nice, but a bit disappointing. Personally I wouldn't have made the expansions and just have gone onto a proper half sequel thing like VC or SA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MightyJordan Posted December 27, 2009 Share Posted December 27, 2009 a lot of people probably got put off due to never finishing GTA4 due to it's size Possibly, but in my case, I got put off simply because GTA IV wasn't that good. It was very bland and boring, the story went on for an age and a day, the graphics were mediocre, the framerate was never consistant, and the online multiplayer just plain sucked. Despite all of GTA IV's flaws though, I am willing to forgive them if they make GTA V like GTA Vice City; in which case, I'll buy it on day one. :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vice Posted December 27, 2009 Share Posted December 27, 2009 I would have bought the expansions but I decided not to because I was already bored of the current city that the stories are set in. I like large open roads like the ones in GTA:SA that surrounded the Vegas-like city where you could drive and drive and GTA:4 lacks that. So unless the DLC opens up new places to go like another island or something I'm totally not interested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rpsgc Posted December 27, 2009 Share Posted December 27, 2009 I got put off due to the crappy "friends" system. Can you say annoying? (not to mention useless) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy0 Posted December 27, 2009 Share Posted December 27, 2009 Release it on the other platforms then! :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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