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GTA Sony Exclusivity Reaffirmed - For Now
Thanks to GamesIndustry.biz for their article discussing Take Two's comments on console exclusivity for the Grand Theft Auto franchise, following the surprise announcement of the GTA 'double-pack' for Xbox, which came about because Take Two/Rockstar had "amended its exclusivity deal with Sony, which had previously prevented the games from appearing on any console other than the PS2." Despite this amendment, Take Two CEO Jeffery Lapin confirmed "...that the next [GTA] game will be on the PlayStation 2 (not the PlayStation 3 as has been speculated by some commentators) and will have an unspecified period of exclusivity on that platform." He also stated that the company "currently has no plans to bring the series to Nintendo's GameCube", but might re-evaluate if "financially prudent".
How come companies still don't get it? Sure, there aren't as many GameCubes out there are there are PS2s. But look at the sales numbers on cube games. The big hit games sell big. Soul Calibur 2 for the cube sold tons more copies than for the other two consoles. Games like "dumb movie license game 3" and "crummy sports game 20X6" don't sell crap on the cube. But they sell on the other systems.
Why is this? Cube owners expect extremely high quality games, games that compete with the extremely high quality of games made by Nintendo. Games like F-ZERO, The Wind Waker and Smash Brothers. EIDOS and Acclaim make only shitty games, that's why they dropped the cube. Cube owners are too smart to buy that crap. Not to say PS2 owners are dumb. There are good games for the Playstation, and when they come out they sell big. But they don't sell bigger than the cube. A hit cube game sells about 1 disc per every 2 or 3 consoles out there. A hit ps2 game sells about 1 disc for every 20 or 25 consoles out there. Because of the large number of ps2 consoles, you can make money by selling crap games. Because even if every 100th guy buys your game you got cash.
So, what does this have to do with GTA? It's a huge hit game! If they sold it for the cube they would probably sell one copy for every 2.5 cubes out there. With PS2 only, they are selling at most one copy for every 15 PS2s.
Games companies, listen here. You can make a lot of money on the GCN, but you have to make hit games. If you are in the business of making crap, don't bother making a cube version, you're just taking up shelf space.
Besides, all those PS2 and XboX games come out for the PC eventually anyway. That's why my money is in the cube.
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Lapin also stated that Take-Two currently has no plans to bring the series to Nintendo's GameCube, but will continue to evaluate the system and will release the next instalment of the franchise on other platforms after the exclusivity period ends, assuming that doing so is "financially prudent".
In other words, if Nintendo gives us boatloads of money, we're port GTA to the GCN.
RockStar can keep their violent trash off of my console, thankyouverymuch. I don't own an entertainment device so I can run people over and shoot cops, I own it to play fun games which help take my mind off the realities of life, one of which includes the fact that people do in fact run over and shoot each other.
MORTAR COMBAT!