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GTAIV episodic content officially now Xbox 360 exclusive thx to SCAT MONEY

jonabbey

Member
Phoenix Down said:
Oblivion dident take full advantage of the HDD on the 360.. but it did on the Ps3... which is why the load times are much faster.... you really need to ask around.. and read that interview



http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=163233

sure the 360 isent giving them trouble :)

Actually, one of the big reasons load times are improved on the PS3 is that they put multiple copies of the game data on the Blu-Ray disc, spread over its surface so as to minimize seek times during loading.

They also take advantage of the HDD, but there are some significant things you can do with a 25GB platter that can be taken advantage of by a motivated developer, after all.
 

USD

Member
Borys said:
QFT

Do it Microsoft, DO IT, and fix that little nagging hardware quality problem, and ascend from the pitiful 150K/ month to 2M/ month.

Legendary threads would follow soon :lol
fixed.
 
Phoenix Down said:

Try reading more than the headline of an article. Use text-to-speech if you have to.

He continued, "To be honest with you we haven't solved all those riddles yet." The difficulties aren't limited to working on Microsoft's box, as Houser explains that "both have enormous challenges" and that "both have their own particular pleasures and pains".
 
Agent Icebeezy said:
Why haven't we seen the PS3 version then?

have you seen any gameplay trailers of GTA4? minus that promotional video? dident think so

yea that video was the 360 version running.. but is that saying much?
 
Smokey Bones said:
I don't think a price drop on the 360 will hit until next spring at the earliest. I have my doubts that it will hit this fall, but if it does Sony is f*cked.

Price drop + GTA IV + Halo 3 = destruction of Sony in North America BUT...

Well, since Sony is in enough trouble already, MSFT can delay a price drop (Maybe that is what you are referring to). However, I MSFT needs to worry about Nintendo.

Perhaps a price drop at the same time they ship their next kiddie product . . . Banjo maybe?
 
Francias Castiglione said:
Try reading more than the headline of an article. Use text-to-speech if you have to.


i read that... it is true.. its not easy... but i bet its much easier when you have bluray and a HDD in every console :)
 

MercuryLS

Banned
LJ11 said:
There is no way MS enters Christmas '07 at the same price point they entered in '05.

I think its highly likely. Cause they want to be profitable this gen, continuing to lose money on the machine (if they do a price drop) isn't one way of doing that. Plus they're feeling very little competitive threat from PS3 currently, and they don't seem to care about how Wii is doing (very stupid move IMO). Also they can coast for a while this holiday season on the strength of Halo 3 and GTAIV (along with a plethora of other great titles). Unless Sony pressures them with a price drop of their own, I can easily see them keeping X360 at $400 until early 2008.

They really should drop the price now though, forget Sony, they need to in order to keep the HD games machine market healthy this gen. Cause right now last gen hardware + waggle ****ing all of that up. Their focus shouldn't be about beating Sony (they're already doing that month to month), they need to save the high-end next-gen console market.
 

Agent Icebeezy

Welcome beautful toddler, Madison Elizabeth, to the horde!
Phoenix Down said:
have you seen any gameplay trailers of GTA4? minus that promotional video? dident think so

yea that video was the 360 version running.. but is that saying much?

All promotional things done for this game are on one console. For the few times its been paraded out in public, there is one version being shown. If there was currently parity between the two, both would be shown concurrently, or together or they probably wouldn't give a damn about which is being shown, but it's always the same version on one particular console, so yes, that is saying a lot.
 

sangreal

Member
There is no basis for this "Microsoft paid TTWO $30 Million for DLC" claim. TTWO said they received $35M in deferred payments for a variety of agreements. One analyst asked how much of that was Microsoft's payment for DLC and TTWO declined to answer (quote below). This $30M figure has been pulled out of GAF's collective ass.

Heath Terry - Credit Suisse First Boston

Great, thank you. Karl, could you give us a little bit more detail on the decision to break out deferred revenue? How much of that is directly tied to the Microsoft deal in terms of you providing online content to that versus being tied to the in-game advertising deals that you have put together?

Karl Winters

We are excited to be in a variety agreements that really cover the online content, the in-game advertising, the licensing of IP -- we think this has shown a material trend for us for the future. We have chatted about this at E3. We have chatted about it in the recent past and we think we are at a point where it is becoming meaningful and significant in terms of revenue capabilities for this company and really leveraging that IP in a variety of new ways, and we talked about the sports titles included there-in.

I think in respect to some of the confidentiality and competitive nature of the business, we are not going to break out details player by player, but there are a number of players involved in those revenue streams, and you can imagine from sports and the other pieces of IP that we have, that people would find that interesting.

Their response doesn't even touch on the Microsoft deal, instead focusing on IP licensing.
 
chubigans said:
They aren't. They're going in at a higher price point, actually.

And it would be unbelieveably stupid to continue along that path. I think we'll see a price drop by November at the latest.
 

MercuryLS

Banned
Chû Totoro said:
Of course i know the reason of this but it's not like i'm happy to buy every system each generation, it represents quite a lot of money.

And i'd rather buy another console for a whole game than just for DLC... (no matter which console it is)

Every gen people with just 1 console get screwed somehow. Last gen it was with timed exclusives, this gen its more with content exclusives. One console future would change all of this, but that ain't ever happening :(
 
sangreal said:
There is no basis for this "Microsoft paid TTWO $30 Million for DLC" claim. TTWO said they received $35M in deferred payments for a variety of agreements. One analyst asked how much of that was Microsoft's payment for DLC and TTWO declined to answer (quote below). This $30M figure has been pulled out of GAF's collective ass.

But people sat around and tried to figure out what that $35 million was from . . . they looked at everything else and figured that even being generous, various in game advertising and what-not would add up to no more than $5 million. So yes, it is an estimate but it is probably relatively accurate.
 

soco

Member
speculawyer said:
And it would be unbelieveably stupid to continue along that path. I think we'll see a price drop by November at the latest.

i think that unless sony surprise drops the ps3 price, it's gonna happen in november. i think they're gonna do their absolute best to get 65nm chips in machines before the end of september and hop this quarter will mean their first profitable quarter.
 

deadhorse32

Bad Art ™
snack said:
Sony is known to make big fusses with companies over things like this. Not with money, but with support.

Right now Sony is not in the position to make fusses about anything.

Hitler Stole My Potato said:
Help! I've been sent back in time to the year 2004 and Capcom just announced RE4 will be released on the PS2. I need to get some plutonium to get home. If you're reading this message future me, contact doc.

I loled
 

reminder

Member
I'll buy the PS3 version because i don't have a 360 yet. Maybe i'll get the 360 version later for cheap to play the DLC if it's something cool. But i don't rush into the store now to buy a 360 only because the PS3 version has no exclusive DLC.
 

MercuryLS

Banned
Effulgence said:
The majority of people aren't going to buy the 360 version because it has episodic content; they'll buy whichever one is better if they have both systems or whichever one is on the system they own. If they don't have either system, they'll make a choice to buy one based on other games, price, features and other factors not including $$$ EPISODIC CONTENT LOL. Of course, this only applies in the vast majority of cases, but the point rests.

I agree that the DLC is more like the icing on the cake rather than a big reason for casuals to pick the X360 version. The main diffrerence will come from the the price difference between the two boxes, casual gamers that have no loyalty but enjoy GTA's will pick X360 to play the game (being able to play the game while keeping $200 in your pocket is a major motivator).
 

FrankT

Member
speculawyer said:
But people sat around and tried to figure out what that $35 million was from . . . they looked at everything else and figured that even being generous, various in game advertising and what-not would add up to no more than $5 million. So yes, it is an estimate but it is probably relatively accurate.


Well I think besides DLC and day and date it is probably not a crazy presumption that some of that went toward some kind of exclusivity deal timed or otherwise for Bioshock.
 

Ether_Snake

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chubigans said:
I feel the same way. All GTAs have felt like full games to me...if GTA4 somehow feels lacking before the extra content, then the devs have failed to deliver a GTA caliber game. End of story.

QFMFT! I want a full game. BTW I'm getting the PS3 version, and I've never been into "Unlocking stuff" and reaching 100%, I just have fun in the game world itself, that's enough for me.
 

LJ11

Member
sangreal said:
There is no basis for this "Microsoft paid TTWO $30 Million for DLC" claim. TTWO said they received $35M in deferred payments for a variety of agreements. One analyst asked how much of that was Microsoft's payment for DLC and TTWO declined to answer (quote below). This $30M figure has been pulled out of GAF's collective ass.



Their response doesn't even touch on the Microsoft deal, instead focusing on IP licensing.

I read that as soon as Agent posted the link. They never clarified it during that call, and they probably never will. Money was exchanged, how much is for us to speculate.

Mercury, sales have dropped for a few months at $400 and the library is stellar right now, and will only get better in the future. MS would be taking a big gamble betting on GTA4 + Halo 3 pushing sales much further at $400. It would almost be a game of who blinks first? Would consumers cave and jump on board, or will they wait it out until an eventual price cut. Nintendo will laugh all the way to the bank, they're laughing already actually, if they don't cut.

Edit: And we all know GTA Wii is coming, it's only a matter of time.
 

sangreal

Member
LJ11 said:
I read that as soon as Agent posted the link. They never clarified it during that call, and they probably never will. Money was exchanged, how much is for us to speculate.

Mercury, sales have dropped for a few months at $400 and the library is stellar right now, and will only get better in the future. MS would be taking a big gamble betting on GTA4 + Halo 3 pushing sales much further at $400. It would almost be a game of who blinks first? Would consumers cave and jump on board, or will they wait it out until an eventual price cut. Nintendo will laugh all the way to the bank, they're laughing already actually, if they don't cut.

Edit: And we all know GTA Wii is coming, it's only a matter of time.

Well I did some more investigating and it seems Microsoft paid $50 million for 2 episodes. From the most recent conference call:
Evan Wilson - Pacific Crest Securities

Thank you. And as it relates to the deferred revenue chunk associated with the episodic content on X-Box 360, you can see that $25 million of that moved into short-term deferred. Could you give us any sense of when that’s going to hit the P&L? Will we see $25 million at one time and then the second 25 or will it be a slow bleed?

Lainie Goldstein

The first 25 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.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/38017
 
LJ11 said:
Edit: And we all know GTA Wii is coming, it's only a matter of time.

I assume that is a joke, right? There has been no indication of any GTA Wii version as of yet. However, I wouldn't be surprised if they eventually ported over some of the last gen GTA stuff just to cash in.
 
jonabbey said:
Actually, one of the big reasons load times are improved on the PS3 is that they put multiple copies of the game data on the Blu-Ray disc, spread over its surface so as to minimize seek times during loading.

They also take advantage of the HDD, but there are some significant things you can do with a 25GB platter that can be taken advantage of by a motivated developer, after all.
Bethesda said that story was blown out of proportion about putting multiple data on the disc on the PS3 and that they did something similar for the 360 version.
 

Rorschach

Member
I kinda wish it was exclusive to one console, then ported to the other. I don't care which. I'd just like focused development at first.
 
For those that don't know, this story started to break when Take Two put out a release schedule for upcoming games and it was listed as "GTAIV DLC Xbox360" Q2 2008 or some thing of that nature. When there was no PS3 content listed, things started to be questioned.

I just wanted to point this out as I saw a couple of people speculating one way or the other about DLC being available at release. It's not going to happen. You'll play through the game, then later they'll release "episodes". And like I said earlier, it'll help bridge the gap until GTA V comes out. I'm guessing it'll also be released at a time when the game's popularity on Live is starting to wane, then, *boom* DLC to pull everyone back in.

Now, I wouldn't put it past Take Two to release a GTA IV: Special Edition on PS3 with all the content in on a disc at some point. It won't be DLC and the exclusive would probably be still intact. Pure speculation, I'm just sayin'! :D
 

Ether_Snake

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szaromir said:
I wish these episodes were worth 25M USD each. o_O

$50,000,000 is more than the cost of GTAIV's development and marketing combined!
 

Oneself

Member
I'll take the best version of the two. If the game runs better on PS3 I'll get that one even if there might not be any downloadable episode. If both are equal, 360 version for DLC.

I do have a feeling that there will be a GTA4 "greatest hits" release with the 360 content "previously unreleased on PS3"...
 
szaromir said:
I wish these episodes were worth 25M USD each. o_O
Rockstar has spent much much more than $50 million on them so far.
Whether that includes infastructure and future assets is tough to say, but I know it is in the low three figure region.
 

Tieno

Member
Visualante said:
Rockstar has spent much much more than $50 million on them so far.
Whether that includes infastructure and future assets is tough to say, but I know it is in the low three figure region.
drevil_million_dollars.jpg
 

Ether_Snake

安安安安安安安安安安安安安安安
Visualante said:
Rockstar has spent much much more than $50 million on them so far.
Whether that includes infastructure and future assets is tough to say, but I know it is in the low three figure region.

You are misinformed! Greatly! There is no way that GTAIV is costing $50 million, let alone close to 100 million. More like 40, total.
 

szaromir

Banned
Visualante said:
Rockstar has spent much much more than $50 million on them so far.
Whether that includes infastructure and future assets is tough to say, but I know it is in the low three figure region.
Over 100M USD on them? Meaning only these 2 sets of content, not the GTA IV itself? I found this incredible, also because I doubt they would want downloads to exceed 1GB (would take forever to download on slower connections like mine - of course I'm in very small minority, but still...).
 
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