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http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/gta-shipments-hit-125m-as-special-series-continues-to-grow/0107140

Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick told the Credit Suisse 2012 Technology Conference – as reported by GameSpot – that the series has now shipped 125m units worldwide.

Of that total Grand Theft Auto IV accounts for 25m units.

The last time the company released GTA sales figures in September 2011 they stood at 114m.

Zelnick also explained why he doesn’t believe Grand Theft Auto can follow the lead of IP such as Call of Duty and Assassin’s Creed by releasing a new instalment every year.

"It's our view that if you want intellectual properties to be permanent, then you run the risk in that circumstance of having consumers fall out of love with that franchise,” he argued. “[Activision] obviously views the world differently."

Pointing out that Black Ops II looks likely to fall short of the sales numbers posted by its predecessor, he added: "That's never been the case with one of ours. Ours do better each time. Our view is it's hard to make permanent intellectual properties if you annualize it, with the exception of sports titles. So far that's proven to be the case.

 

[Feature]

I'm glad they don't release a new version each year. Just look at the shitfest COD turned into.

 

[grimshawish]

"It's our view that if you want intellectual properties to be permanent, then you run the risk in that circumstance of having consumers fall out of love with that franchise,” he argued. “[Activision] obviously views the world differently."

Pointing out that Black Ops II looks likely to fall short of the sales numbers posted by its predecessor, he added: "That's never been the case with one of ours. Ours do better each time. Our view is it's hard to make permanent intellectual properties if you annualize it, with the exception of sports titles. So far that's proven to be the case.

Don't suck up and don't show off.
GTA just doesn't fit the annualised model.

COD being released every 4 years isn't going to increase its sales.

 

[LeleSocho]

Our view is it's hard to make permanent intellectual properties if you annualize it, with the exception of sports titles. So far that's proven to be the case.

Very true, the guy who greenlight NSMB series should learn a few things from that...

 

[ffdgh]

Congratz to you R☆

 

[zomgbbqftw]

Amazing.

Great series, but I hope they take a few cues from Saints Row for GTA5.

 

[Auto_aim1]

GTA 5 could possibly ship 30 million units considering the install base. Taking a dig at Activision makes no sense though, they make a tremendous amount of money each year.

If they see a massive decline in sales then they will change their business model, but why change if people are buying CoD every year in droves?

 

[Hanmik]

ahh so that is why EU PSN is having a sale..

Grand Theft Auto IV (Not available in Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE)
Was €24.99/£19.99, now €12.99/£9.99
Additional 10% discount for Plus subscribers

Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City (Not available in Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE)
Was €19.99/£15.99, now €9.99/£9.99
Additional 10% discount for Plus subscribers



Grand Theft Auto IV Complete Edition (Not available in Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE)
Was €34.99/£27.99, now €17.99/£13.99
Additional 10% discount for Plus subscribers

Grand Theft Auto: Episodes Bundle (Not available in Kuwait, Portugal, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, UAE)
Was €19.99/£15.99, now €9.99/£7.99
Additional 10% discount for Plus subscribers

Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned (Not available in Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE)
Was €9.99/£7.99, now €4.99/£3.99
Additional 10% discount for Plus subscribers

Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony (Not available in Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE)
Was €17.99/£13.99, now €8.99/£7.29
Additional 10% discount for Plus subscribers

http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2012/11/28/grand-theft-auto-sale-starts-today/

 

[grimshawish]

Great series, but I hope they take a few cues from Saints Row for GTA5.

Personally I feel if they ignore GTA4 (except learning what not to do) and take from the likes of Vice City they should be alright

 

[Jaded Alyx]

Very true, the guy who greenlight NSMB series should learn a few things from that...

You should look up the word "annualize".

 

[KiNeSiS]

Amazing.

Great series, but I hope they take a few cues from Saints Row for GTA5.

NO THANK YOU!!!!
Unless it's a better hand to hand fighting engine, In that case get the guys who made The Warriors on that section of gameplay....

 

[zomgbbqftw]

Personally I feel if they ignore GTA4 (except learning what not to do) and take from the likes of Vice City they should be alright

Yeah, that too.

NO THANK YOU!!!!
Unless it's a better hand to hand fighting engine, In that case get the guys who made The Warriors on that section of gameplay....

Not for gameplay, more for the tone. GTA4 was way too serious and boring. I just want GTA5 to be more light hearted. Vice City is also a good starting point.

 

[Shtof]

In 10 years Grand Theft Auto 7 will light up the charts, while Call of Duty will be long forgotten.

 

[KiNeSiS]

I hope they do it like last time.

One serious game & 2 episodes.

One again centering around gang culture this time revisiting the Grove Street Gang.
Two a brand new comedy type all out weird one in the vein of BoGT....
That would be so Boss!

 

[Ahasverus]

In 10 years Grand Theft Auto 7 will light up the charts, while Call of Duty will be long forgotten.

Pretty much

 

[Dabanton]

Yeah, that too.

Not for gameplay, more for the tone. GTA4 was way too serious and boring. I just want GTA5 to be more light hearted. Vice City is also a good starting point.

GTA:IV was lighthearted it's tone didn't shift away from previous games imo. The characters surrounding the main protag were just as silly and twisted.

 

[Vice]

GTA 5 could possibly ship 30 million units considering the install base. Taking a dig at Activision makes no sense though, they make a tremendous amount of money each year.

If they see a massive decline in sales then they will change their business model, but why change if people are buying CoD every year in droves?

Well, it's happened to Acticision quite a few times. Most notably with their music games and Tony Hawk. The series is immendly popular then it crashes and burns in a couple of years so Acti is a good example for the negatives of making games an annual event simply because they're popular.

 

[GlamFM]

"It's our view that if you want intellectual properties to be permanent, then you run the risk in that circumstance of having consumers fall out of love with that franchise,” he argued. “[Activision] obviously views the world differently."

One of the reasons I consider T2 ( and "sistercompany" 2K ) the best publisher out there.

 

[grimshawish]

GTA:IV was lighthearted it's tone didn't shift away from previous games imo. The characters surrounding the main protag were just as silly and twisted.

The gameplay was terrible and a lot of the characters were either dull or not very individual.

 

[Cindres]

I can see them continuing the trend of getting more sales each time. My housemates who ultimately weren't really fans of GTA IV are unbelievably hyped for GTA V still, as am I (though I did like GTA IV).

The current system works, game, couple of "episodes", I liked that.

 

[Bomber Bob]

man I can't wait for GTAV. maybe I should just freeze myself

 

[MMaRsu]

NO THANK YOU!!!!
Unless it's a better hand to hand fighting engine, In that case get the guys who made The Warriors on that section of gameplay....

Lol there have been plenty of gameplay additions made by Saints Row that would benefit all open world games.

 

[RockmanWhore]

I'm curious to see how GTA V will sale, GTA IV has disapointed lots of people, I wouldn't be surprised if V suffers from the backlash, no matter how good or bad it will actually be.

It could totally sell more though, with all the PS3 and 360 out there in the wild and so far, the reception of the game from the internet seems pretty warm.

As of Call of Duty I don't know if it can lose its appeal like older Activision's franchise like Rock Band or Tony Hawk, it's not a single player game or a party game, it's main appeal is its online multiplayer, and we've seen that these kind of games can have very long legs. For exemple on PC there are still tons of people playing Counter Strike.

 

[KiNeSiS]

Lol there have been plenty of gameplay additions made by Saints Row that would benefit all open world games.

I own Saint's Row 1, 2 & 3. I would love the fighting engine of GTA refined, more gore, & jets other than that they shouldn't ape Saint's Rows steez. I enjoy Saint's Row Games but they are just B-Tier compared to GTA IV & the episodes. Rockstar is just on a whole other level compared to volition. GTA could benefit from a ton more side activities that is another thing they should get back to. What would be excellent since you can't enter all of the buildings is a greater sense of destructibility. I figure ram would be an issue but if Mercenaries 1 on the original Xbox can do it then so could GTA. That would be a feature that would be great to borrow from the awesome Red Faction Guerrilla. Too bad Volition didn't stick to that script....

 

[KiNeSiS]

I'm curious to see how GTA V will sale, GTA IV has disapointed lots of people, I wouldn't be surprised if V suffers from the backlash, no matter how good or bad it will actually be.

It could totally sell more though, with all the PS3 and 360 out there in the wild and so far, the reception of the game from the internet seems pretty warm.

As of Call of Duty I don't know if it can lose its appeal like older Activision's franchise like Rock Band or Tony Hawk, it's not a single player game or a party game, it's main appeal is its online multiplayer, and we've seen that these kind of games can have very long legs. For exemple on PC there are still tons of people playing Counter Strike.

Max Payne 3 is one of the greatest games of this generation & just look at the backlash that received around here!

 

[shinobi602]

At the Credit Suisse Technology Conference today, Take-Two Interactive chief executive officer Strauss Zelnick said that the Grand Theft Auto series has reached 125 million units shipped. No breakdown was given for the numbers, which stand ahead of the 114 million number cited by Zelnick on September 2011. At that time, Grand Theft Auto IV accounted for 22 million units, but a Take-Two representative told GameSpot that GTA IV alone has shipped 25 million units to date.

Zelnick believes that the franchise continues to be popular due to its lengthy release schedule, in contrast to annual franchises like Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed.

"Grand Theft Auto has the highest quality of any title, which is why it is the standard-bearer in the business. It's why it's sold 125 million units. I would argue that saying to people 'make a perfect-rated title that's the standard bearer in the business and do it on this every-other-year schedule' not only isn't realistic, but it also runs the risk of taking a very special franchise and making it less special,” said Zelnick when asked about making the franchise more consistent in its release schedule.

Zelnick then compared Grand Theft Auto's sporadic releases to the James Bond films, a series that is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

“This isn't a one title company, it's a multi-title company. While we definitely would like to iron some of the slippage out of our business and we definitely would like to tighten some of our production schedules, the answer is not to put out any given title more frequently at the same level of quality. The answer to diversify to a greater number of titles, increase the quality level of all those and deliver more hits.”

When asked about the success Activision has had with Call of Duty being annual, Zelnick said it was merely a “different approach.”

“[Activision] has done a terrific job fielding two teams and still putting out a very high quality product. It's our view that if you want intellectual property to be permanent, then you run the risk in that circumstance of having consumers fall out of love with that franchise. [Activision] obviously view the world differently,” said Zelnick. “I have enormous respect for [Activision CEO Bobby Kotick] and the team. It's a different approach than ours.”

Zelnick explained that eventually consumers will begin to move away from a franchise due to fatigue and Take-Two is not looking to have that happen with its intellectual property.

"That's never been the case with one of ours," he said. "Ours do better each time. Our view is it's hard to make permanent intellectual properties if you annualize it, with the exception of sports titles. So far that's proven to be the case. IP that is annualized eventually seems to hit the wall and we don't want our IP to hit the wall."

Source

.

 

[Sn4ke_911]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=501728

 

[Takao]

older than the my age when i first played a gta game

 

[shinobi602]

older than the my age when i first played a gta game

Shit that's old.

 

[Skyzard]

I'll give them "best quality" when they can make a version that doesn't drop so many frames while driving fast.

oops

 

[Massa]

GTA 5 could possibly ship 30 million units considering the install base. Taking a dig at Activision makes no sense though, they make a tremendous amount of money each year.

If they see a massive decline in sales then they will change their business model, but why change if people are buying CoD every year in droves?

That's not taking a dig, rather it's trying to explain to money-hungry foresight-lacking investors why they're not killing the GTA franchise.

 

[Kickass667]

But can they explain why GTAIV was such a terrible game when compared to Saints Row 2

 

[Lothars]

But can they explain why GTAIV was such a terrible game when compared to Saints Row 2

They don't need to because it wasn't a terrible game compared to Saints Row 2, Which had just as many issues as GTA IV did, Both are great series and should be played.

 

[bitoriginal]

I'm curious to see how GTA V will sale, GTA IV has disapointed lots of people, I wouldn't be surprised if V suffers from the backlash, no matter how good or bad it will actually be.

GTAV will smash IV's sales figures. The backlash is a small minority of people who are just very vocal. It will have literally no impact on the sales of GTAV.

 

[Count of Monte Sawed-Off]

But can they explain why GTAIV was such a terrible game when compared to Saints Row 2

I did prefer SR2 to GTA4, but I wouldn't call GTA4 terrible in comparison. It was at least better than SR3.

 

[Stumpokapow]

"That's never been the case with one of ours," he said. "Ours do better each time

Manhunt
Carnival Games
Spec Ops
Midnight Club
The Darkness
Mafia

Yep, ain't no Take 2 franchises on the decline. They just keep doing better and better.