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?
Medal of Honor: Rising Sun
or
The Godfather
Mass effect 2
I’m just going to answer the QOTW seeing that I’m going to write a lot.
QOTW: Why did you have to choose this question? I have such a big problem with picking favorites, everything has its good and bad, and sometimes they are so different that I just can’t compare them.
At least I don’t have such a huge list, seeing that I only really got into gaming in 2009, but I still went back to play plenty of old games.
Looking through lists and lists of best games of that decade, I have narrowed it down to Super Smash Bros Brawl, LoZ: Twlight Princess, Super Mario Galaxy and Batman: Arkham Asylum. 4 completely different games, don’t even know where to start.
*Back after watching a couple of videos, refreshing my memory on each of the games*
While watching Super Mario Galaxy, I couldn’t help but think how much better the sequel was, which also removed a lot of the already little cons it had Seeing that, I’m going to have to rule it out.
Comparing the most similar games, Twilight Princess and Batman, I’m going to have to go with Batman by a few marks, I’ll list the reasons if it wins out in the end.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl is great and all, but I’m going to have to go with Batman simply because fighting is not one of my favorite genres and Action/Adventure is actually at the top to me.
Batman: Arkham Asylum. It is an all-out great game. It never outstays its welcome, the pacing is almost perfect. Awesome and intuitive combat, stealth missions that make you plan a whole attack, very original boss battles, good storyline, tons of interesting secrets to collect, lots of cool gadgets at your disposal, upgrades that actually matter, and overall making you feel like a badass. I have a hard time remembering if I ever played a game twice, but I’m glad to say I did with this one.
I’m sorry that I wrote so much on this topic, but it needed to be done. You may skip reading out all the rambling parts during the podcast.
@QOTW
Morrowind. I don’t even know where to begin expressing my love for this game. I will attempt to keep it short.
When I was 15, I had no job. My mother was convinced that wasting £40 on a game was bad. So I bought games that would provide me with enough content to keep me busy for a while. Morrowind was a gold mine.
I bought it for Xbox. It had everything I ever wanted. A large explorable world full of NPCs. Hundreds of quests. Dozens of guilds. And freedom. Freedom to do anything you ever wanted. Be whatever you wanted. That’s what I loved the most.
Too keep things short I will bullet point the most notable features that I remember:
-Every item had a shape and form. I remember stacking my looted gems on a shelf because they looked fantastic.
-The rich Elder Scrolls lore. The races. The continents. Everything was well thought through, well described and well implemented. The world of Morrowind was truly alive. And interesting.
-You assumed the role of Nerevarine, the incarnation of an ancient war chief. Your coming was predicted by a prophecy. However, unlike in other games where you just fit the prophecy from the start, in Morrowind you had to twist and bend the whole political world to be accepted as an incarnate. Made you feel important.
-The world of Morrowind was dark. Depressing. Alien. Nothing that it’s sequels can ever match. Everything was going to hell fast and you were at the front of it all. And the dungeons with the Sixth House Cult could be as scary as a survival horror.
-A few years later I purchased the game for the PC. Bethesda bundled it’s Game of the Year with the TES construction set. The number of fan made mods available was amazing. It was like playing a whole new game.
-Real world issues. Racism. Bullying. Homosexuality. Stuff you don’t find in your average Zelda game.
I still have lots to say, but that would take to long. As an after word, Morrowind was my favourite game not just of this decade, but ever. Although I enjoyed Oblivion and Skyrim, they can never match the delight I experience from playing Morrowind.
@QOTW Kingdom Hearts. it just has a charm that was never matched by its sequels along with solid gameplay and story and a certain wow factor compared to other action rpgs at the time. ive clocked over a hundred hours with mulitiple playthroughs and its enjoyable every time.
Battlefield 2 is still my all time favourite game of this decade
There’s been a lot of great releases over the 2000’s decade. Thinking back, there were soooo many possibilities over several different consoles so it’s difficult to really chose. So, here’s a breakdown
PC: Counter Strike (Original Addon Version)
Xbox 360: Modern Warefare (the first)
Playstation 2: Katamari Damachi (Soo addicting)
Sega: Streets Of Rage or Kid Chameleon
SNES: Street Fighter
NES: Blaster Master / Metroid (I was in love with those 2)