M$ Pays 50 Mil for GTA IV Episodic Content

LINK

Holy Shit!!!!!

I wonder if this is a sign of things to come? Can you see huge bidding wars between PS3 and M$ to see who gets exclusive rights to other upcoming games in 2008?

Won' t affect game sales but it will piss some people off.

Hang on, Billy, didn' t you swear PS3 would get exactly the same DLC as 360?

Exclusive episodic content!? 50 mil is absolutely ridiculous, but it' s a sound business decision for sure. It' s scary when 50 mil is a good deal.

I wonder how much they' re going to charge for this episodic content. I hope they' ll have it on disc. If I buy another Box I don' t want to have to have my 360 hooked up online just to play content I paid for.

It' s scary when 50 mil is a good deal.

I agree but I think that for MS its just a drop in the bucket. I don' t think that the episodic content is what they were really after I think they bought it so that it looks like MS has something more to hold over Sony' s head.

Won' t affect game sales but it will piss some people off.

You' re prolly right but it will affect console sales which is where MS is really going to make the money because all people have to see now is a game they want on a console with " exclusive content for 360" by it and it will be an obvious choice.

I wonder if this is a sign of things to come? Can you see huge bidding wars between PS3 and M$ to see who gets exclusive rights to other upcoming games in 2008?

Definately with the way things are going third party game developers are going to get greedy and try to get as much money as they can, so that means that somebody will need to pony up more dough if they want exclusivity.

The real question you should ask is will these bidding wars affect gamers in any way? And as the war ensues we will see who has deeper pockets MS or Sony.

That' s already been answered. Microsoft' s are deeper. Now it' s time to see who is stingier.

Eddie is exactly correct. M$ pockets are much deeper than Sony' s are at the moment. That' s not to say that in the future with Sony winning the HD DVD format wars, which they will, that in the not so distant future they will have the same kind of money that M$ has to throw around.

Still though, 50 mil for episodic content!!!!! I wonder how much money M$ or Sony would be willing to put up to say have exclusive rights to devs like Rockstar or Epic?

It the next year I can see this sort of thing getting completely out of control.

It the next year I can see this sort of thing getting completely out of control.

Hell I can see this thing getting out of hand this fall with all the big releases coming out and all.

That' s already been answered. Microsoft' s are deeper. Now it' s time to see who is stingier.

I don' t think that MS pockets are deeper but I do think they are willing to go to greater lengths to get exclusives. I think that Sony has not been putting all of its resources into the PS3 which is intelligent because lots of other Sony Corp products are doing really well so Sony can stand to lose some ground in the console wars it' s just a matter of how far will so allow MS to push before it pushes back

the exculsive content is timed exculsive, after a few months psn will get it, the same for the second batch of content, infact ms payed 100mil, 50 for each. after that who knows. I wouldnt worry about it too much if your a ps3 owner, rockstar has said it is coming, but now its just coming later. Just like Unreal 2007 for the 360 if the rumors are to be believed.

Change is inevitable. Except from a vending machine.

Viva La Revolution! erm, I mean Viva La Wii!

50 mil for episodic content!!!!!

For 50 million I say keep that content. Hey they have the money but I sure sony' s got a little something something planned.

It was 50 mil total. 25 for the first batch in Spring, and 25 for the next batch.

Do you have a link for where Rockstar has stated that PSN will be getting the Episodic content as well?

ORIGINAL: Silentbomber

the exculsive content is timed exculsive, after a few months psn will get it, the same for the second batch of content, infact ms payed 100mil, 50 for each. after that who knows. I wouldnt worry about it too much if your a ps3 owner, rockstar has said it is coming, but now its just coming later.

Need some proof for that. I highly doubt that they' ll get the content later. They might get different content but probably not the same. Take 2 have been in a bit of financial trouble as of late and this money probably has some powerful repercussions as a result.

Just like Unreal 2007 for the 360 if the rumors are to be believed.

Rumors? The official trailer on XBLM gives it more substance than " rumor" . So does this:
X360
PS3
PC

Release dates all seem to be the same. Around September.

I don' t think that MS pockets are deeper but I do think they are willing to go to greater lengths to get exclusives. I think that Sony has not been putting all of its resources into the PS3 which is intelligent because lots of other Sony Corp products are doing really well so Sony can stand to lose some ground in the console wars it' s just a matter of how far will so allow MS to push before it pushes back

Trust me, MS' s gaming division has quite a substantial wallet.

The rest of Sony' s divisions are doing fine, but I' m not sure they' d be so hot on drawing money from Vaio or Bravia. Not to mention I' m not sure they' d even be able to do that in the first place. I have no clue how Sony is structured.

For 50 million I say keep that content. Hey they have the money but I sure sony' s got a little something something planned.

Why would sony be plotting revenge over a little bit of extra content?

UT3 was announced for 360 months ago. See

As for the GTA IV episodic content, it' s 100% 360 exclusive. Rockstar had previously stated that both 360 and PS3 would see different downloadable content, but the PS3 content will now not be developed. It' s nowhere to be seen in their 2008 fiscal lineup

L.A. Noire however appears to remain PS3 exclusive.

L.A. Noire? Sounds hot, I' ve never heard of it.

LA Noire does look a really good game.

Not sure if all that cash spent on content for GTAIV is really going to make any difference on whether people buy 360 version over PS3, so in that case the only reason for spending it is for MS bragging rights.

I think that if people have a 360 and a PS3 than they are of course going to buy the one with exclusive content. But I don' t think it will be enought to make a PS3 owner buy a 360 but since there are quite a few people who haven' t taken sides on which console to buy and this might sway a few more to MS. But I think 50 mil is f***ing stupid for exclusive episodic content only.

Episodic content in general isn' t anywhere near enough to affect sales of either software nor hardware, and the audience the GTA games are generally geared towards aren' t the type to pay for additional downloadable content.

Microsoft aren' t going to absorb that $50M, they' re going to make us pay for the content and only a small percentage of people who buy the retail game will also buy the DLC.

Microsoft have done this just so it gives them an extra bulletpoint over Sony.

I disagree, I think this will convert many PC/PS3 gamers to owning an Xbox 360 version to get the extra content. A substantial enough percentage of people anteing up for Xbox products, including Live and other titles.

What' s more, I think this is the start of a long term relationship between Microsoft and Rockstar, where Microsoft basically becomes a second publisher for the team. Microsoft has already approached another T2 avenue in Bioshock, and will probably consider dipping in for Fallout 3 exclusivity.

Not that I think it' s good, I think it' s a bad idea when money is used to muscle out competition. I can' t say it won' t be economically successful, however.