Like a washed up superstar, Grand Theft Auto IV continues to drop in NPD figures. This Axl Rose of video games came on strong and sputtered out into oblivion with barely a notice, leaving the spotlight and all hype behind it. This drastic fall may hurt any negotiations “behind closed doors” with Electronic Arts and their constant attempts to take over Take-Two.
Prior to the release of GTA IV we, in our gaming podcast, predicted a huge launch would up the anti against the bids on Take-Two from EA but things didn’t work out exactly as we expected. Although the game has sold 8.5-million units, it might not add any new bargaining power to the back door negotiations.
A game company is only as good as their games. A hit title which dies out quick helps financially guide the future of the company; technically the future isn’t so bright. With the title quickly falling off the top game sales charts we may never see it hit record sales figures to match that of smaller titles. Having one hot title every four years that “breaks records” for a week isn’t a strong weapon against a low bid from a larger publisher.
While EA may not have any record setting “one week” sales titles yet, they do have a consistently strong set of titles which stick on the charts for months with newer titles arriving to take their spot when they fade. The same can be said for a few other notable publishers, Activision and Ubisoft. To survive in the hot game industry, especially with market downturns, one must have a cycle of great games to publish throughout the year consistently year-over-year in order to provide evidence of their financial stability.
Assuming the bid won’t raise for GTA IV, where does that leave Take-Two? Perhaps Take-Two is better off under the umbrella of Electronic Arts after all. The waters are getting more hostile in the industry as companies compete for gamers attention with 100-million dollar titles and casual games and game consoles (read: Wii) start to build a whole new none-gamer-style momentum.
Is Take-Two better off under the EA brand?
Jonah, you can simply skip the iOS and Facebook games π
@NGP to be called the PlayStation Vita: … I liked more the NGP … Now I could be biased, I never saw the ad you guys mentioned.
@PS4 in development .. oops, no itβs not: Now, if we ignore the PSN security issues, I would consider this kind of inconsistencies funny. Now, what if they’d do the same with PSN? I can imagine the dialog:
Q: Is PSN secure?
A1: PSN is air tight secure.
(a few weeks later)
A2: PSN is not that secure.
@Dungeon Empires out of beta: I see this becoming a pretty big game. It blends some sort of ‘Farmville’ and WoW. It’s … nice!
@Dead or Alive 3DS = child porn?
Besides the age of the characters, proper rating would make this easily avoided.
@Call of Duty: Elite announced: good point, Jonah. They didn’t handle the information properly, and that can turn against them, with or without a real reason.
Jordan, the game you mentioned, ‘Eternal Darkness’, I am following a ‘Lets play’ for it.
@QOTW: none, unfortunately. Well, maybe Rage. While id’s games are not the most cinematic ones, I have to admit I liked most of what they released.
I have not listened to this episode yet, but I’m sure it will be good. I’m glad to see that you are keeping it going. Listening to the show since last November and I’m happy that its not going to die.
Hey fellas, glad to see the TD Gaming Podcast is still alive! I’ve been a fan since episode #118. Just a heads-up – the Schommers used to use a program called “Levelator” to even out their audio. I don’t know if you guys do as well, but if not it might help your output.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levelator
I’m keeping the Schommer family in my prayers and wishing you all the best as I continue listening faithfully π
Just listened to the podcast, really enjoyed it, but thats what I expected.
About the “Vita”, I’ve been hearing complaints about the naming , but it seems like no matter what they name it, people are still going to complain.
PS4 – I’m glad that they aren’t working on a new console, they need to work on getting the PS3 back to where it was before all the hacking, but again, it seems like no matter what Sony does, people will still complain. They just can’t win.
Bungie – I can’t wait to see this game. Bungie has really only been known for Halo, and I’m very curious to see what they are going to be able to follow it up with. This game will really show what Bungie can do now that they aren’t tied down to one franchise. Also, saw the trailer for Halo 4, seems unnecessary, I thought the trilogy was fine, but 343 seems capable of making a solid Halo without the help of Bungie.
Call of Duty Elite – I am one of the many that watch Call of Duty commentaries on Youtube, and it was clear to see that the majority weren’t happy about the announcement that you will have to pay. That was before it was announced that you would get most features free. Patience certainly isn’t too common in this community. It sucks that that was the way it had to be revealed.
QOTW – I am really excited for Bioshock: Infinite. Have been waiting to see more on it since the first trailer came out. I love this series and to see that they are taking it to the sky makes it seem like the series is being reborn.
@Will, PS4 issue:
It’s more complicated, the ugly way I’m afraid.
The issue with PS3 is that (1) the root key, the one that validates if the DVD is legal or not, was ‘coded’ in the silicon chip, and (2) that key was discovered.
This means that anyone can build custom software (or pirate games) and ‘stamp’ them as legal.
One way to ‘fix’ this is to change the key.
This means that future PS3 have encoded in them the new key, and all games that follow will also use that key. The issue is that the new PS3s won’t be able to play the older PS3 games (different keys), and that the old PS3s cannot play the new games.
The PS3’s root key issue was using a sloppy “security by obscurity” strategy.
The PSN case is strikingly similar: once the hackers discovered the what (old) version of software PSN used, they could then use a list of known security exploits for them.
If you’re wondering where the podcast is, it’s coming soon. We will be adopting a regular schedule once things settle down post-E3.