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?
Hey guys glad to have the show back I was concerned on what had happened. I’m sorry to hear that Jordan is gone, does this mean you need a replacement?
@Activision: Speaking of them only having a few actual games they are reviving the Sierra brand apparently. If you go to http://www.sierra.com you can see the trailer they have released for this.
I am not sure what to make of it, since more will be revealed at Gamecon. When you mentioned them only having a few games that belong to them this got me thinking that this may be in part reason why they are reviving the Sierra brand to make more games. I don’t know if this means they will hire the old Sierra game developers, get new ones and what will be the quality of the games, what should we expect? I think I will keep my expectations very low on this one.
@ Disney revenue up: Yeah, Ouch indeed “we have money now that we’ve restructured a bunch of people out of jobs”
@Sony lawsuit settlement: No matter what Sony does they still look bad for holding back that information, why they thought that idea was good is beyond me.
@Yogcast Kickstarter: Everyone of these is I think a Investment, since gambling to me is more a game of chance like with dice, horses, sports, etc. If you don’t do your research then yes you are gambling the money. However as Jonah pointed out find out if they are a experienced game maker and it’s less of a risk. I trust Obsidian because of their impressive resume of past games they have made. I’ve been that careful with the other projects I’ve backed or kept an on. Paul is right as well as you need more then just a neat or cool idea, you need to know how to make that idea happen. So with that in mind I think you can use Kickstart to smartly invest in a games future and avoid games that will likely not make it.
@ Spaced Invaders: I think Paul is right here and that this is going to be another Battleship movie. This doesn’t seem like a good enough material to make a movie out of that won’t seem generic. We have so many of those already as Jonah tried to point out. This could be fun IF they make it tongue in cheek parody like Mars Attack was. But they will probably take the over serious tone and try for a Independence Day and fail. Maybe they will get a good writer and director but this does seem like a desperate grasping at straws.
@ PC and Console decline: Really? You keep using that word, I don’t think it means what you think it means.
QotW: With more digital games this certainly seems possible, making it easier to beta perhaps and find bugs to be fixed later.