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?
Hi Guys.
Thanks for this episode, even if i am not so much into Resident Evil, it was interesting to listen to your thoughts about it 🙂
I played the last RE on PS4 … it was 7? Dont know exactly 🙂
I finished Hollow Knight, Detroit Become Human and Monsterboy and the cursed Kingdom … made it to 97% without any walkthroughs 🙂 Yesterday i started with Kingdom Hearts 2.5 because i want to play through this until i start KH 3. And of Course: a lot of Magic The Gathering Arena!
What do you guys think about all these new-old games coming out besides RE? Like Monsterboy or all these HD Remakes of this and that? Do you like it or do you like the original feeling of the old games and do you want to play only graphical blasts in 2019 (like Last Of Us 2, Anthem and such Triple A titles)?
For your question of the week: i want a remake of Metroid (the original one on NES and Super Metroid for SNES) as well or some GameBoy Games like Gargoyles Quest or Simons Quest 🙂
There are some Non-Video Games from my childhood (C64 and Amiga) i would love to see as a remake: Apydia, Turrican, Moonstone, New Zealand Story or Baldurs Gate. On the other side maybe these games were good back in the days but would not be good anymore today even with better graphics? 🙂
Please stay as you are and keep going with the good work.
Greetings from germany,
Ralf