The two pieces of episodic content for Grand Theft Auto IV (The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony) were both critically acclaimed. Still, despite being attached to a game that has sold over 13 million copies worldwide, Take-Two indicates that the two pieces of DLC (later packaged together on a disc titled Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City) did not perform up to expectations.
"Both we and [Xbox-maker] Microsoft believe there was a big market for GTA IV episodic content and some factors have affected their performance,” said Take-Two CEO Ben Feder during a conference call [thanks Kotaku]. “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."
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City sold roughly 100,000 copies according to estimates, which didn't move the dial as much as either Take-Two would have liked as a publisher or Microsoft as a purchaser of their exclusivity. "Episodes From Liberty City seems to have been most appealing to those who have finished GTA IV and wanted more story and gameplay, which is a smaller market than initially expected,” said Feder, acknowledging their critical acclaim and adding they were "profitable contributors to the company, so we're pleased with them."
Indeed, reports are that Microsoft paid out $50 million to make the episodes exclusive to Xbox 360, so Take-Two probably made most if not all of their development cost back via that payout. It's tough to say what led to the under-perfomance of the two episodes, whether it was the platform exclusivity, an inability to capitalize on the game's initial momentum or if DLC releases aren't as ready for prime-time as some people think.
3 Comments
December 21, 2009
That's your problem right there. "We and Microsoft". You 'might' be singing a different tune it were we and every console manufacturers system we released GTA IV on. Oh well, Nobody cares. You wanted your money and you got it. No reason for you to be disappointed. Maybe the the gamers on PS3 who bought GTA 4 and were given the cold shoulder have that right though (which is not me as i've never bought nor played any GTA game).
100K? That's just sounds wrong to me. Weren't there reports that it sold over 1 million copies or Downloads on X-box live? Where is the 100K estimate coming from though?
December 21, 2009
The GTA IV engine needs to be updated. Yeah, it isn't very old. But Uncharted, Modern Warfare, Gears of War 2, and others are putting it to shame.
Enough of Liberty City. Update the engine and bring on Vice City! And bring the humor back.
December 22, 2009
The 100k figure is for the combined product physical disk, not including downloads if I'm reading the article correctly. I'm inclined to believe that abysmal figure due to the lack of marketing alone, add in exclusivity and it only increases my confidence. I'm also skeptical that most consumers are willing to throw down $40 on DLC's for a game that's over a year and a half old. Chances are that most people who would have actually bought these releases have long since shelved GTA 4.
The GTA franchise took a step backwards with GTA 4 in my opinion. The lack of humor, character customization and rewarding distractions (think gang turf wars) really hurt the game in my opionion. The only thing that GTA 4 (on the 360) did for me was make me plug in my PS2 and play through San Andreas again...