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The Worth of the GTA Franchise
GameDailyBiz has a piece analyzing the value of the Grand Theft Auto Franchise for developer Rockstar and publisher Take-Two Entertainment. At something like $900 Million over the next five years, the franchise is almost 80% of Take-Two's market value. From the article: " ... While it's hard to blame Take-Two for its reliance on a blockbuster franchise, eventually gamers are likely to tire of the GTA formula, or the games will no longer feel fresh when placed side-by-side with titles that perhaps improve on that formula. To be fair, Take-Two has made attempts to diversify itself through acquisitions and new IP, but the publisher's value right now is heavily dependent upon GTA and that could be a double-edged sword for potential suitors, or investors in general. "
GTA, IMO, is one of the best games ever. Not just for it's content but for it's gameplay. It is open ended in ways other games only wish they could be. I'd love to see Take Two team up with someone like Square to product a really open ended RPG style game that has a Final Fantasy feel and GTA's attitude. Something for us big kids. I think GTA itself is destined to become a great online game. City of Villians wants to be but doesn't have what it takes but I think GTA could do it because it's already open ended and fun. They just have to make it multiplayer which doesn't seem to much of a stretch for the game. You don't need to be the hero in GTA so the stories work better for the masses than in a game like Final Fantasy online. Gang wars, lone gunmen, etc could all be a lot of fun.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
I think we're starting to see the inevitable dilution of the GTA franchise. GTASA was a good game, but I'm not sure really how much further they can go with the same idea over and over. It's not enough to have better graphics and stuff, they need to evolve the gameplay, and not just in minor tweaks. I know the prospect of GTA LCS was not enough to get me to buy a PSP, because it didn't really sound like anything new.
Knight37 - Once a Gamer, Always a Gamer
Well, iD seems to be barrelling along just fine on the strength of the same game. Epic is doing Gears of War but that's probably the first non-Unreal game to come out of them in the past 8 years. (To be fair, both of these companies, to my knowledge, derive or derived income by licensing their game engine).
McDonald's seems to be doing OK only selling hamburgers.
Take Two's reliance on a blockbuster franchise is only bad if having one bad game can crumble their company. If they can publish a GTA game that sells only "OK" (say, 1 million copies) and still run the business profitably, then they're fine. Otherwise, they're a bloated company with few cash reserves. GTA is not the problem in that case.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
...which is what I think they were getting at. I bought every id game from wolfenstein3d to ...wolfenstein redux. I did not buy doom 3 nor quake 4 and have no desire to do so; I'm just not interested in either one anymore. Walk, get spooked, shoot, repeat. Graphics look awesome but it seems to me just a rehash of the games I played in the early 90s.
Same thing with GTA...GTA 3 was fun, Vice City was *really* fun, SA was neither here nor there for me. Besides, where can they go with it?
I went nuts with Unreal Tournament, even designing some levels, but UT3 and 4 didn't impress (why they take away the *best* weapon in the game (snipers rifle) is beyond me). I still play the original UT because it "felt right". Years after the fact and I'm still haunting the halls of CTF-November.
The only franchises that I've seen work over time are the "story"-type ones of Zelda, Final Fantasy, and the like. If Doom had a story (I mean a *real* story, a la Half-Life) I might be interested to see "what happens next", but they didn't do that.
Sadly, the one true franchise that relies on a continuous story, Shenmue, doesn't seem like it'll see the light of day.
People will come back for more if there's a reason to come back for more. In the age of OpenGL-based desktops, dual core processors, gigabytes of ram, SLI video cards, etc. etc., graphics are no longer the "more" and any franchise that doesn't see that is doomed.
Games just aren't long enough, don't have enough content, or are too short between the sequals.
... Once I spend the time developing a basic proficiency in a game, I want to enjoy as much content in that game world as possible.
When I play a game, I have to develop a whole new skill set. Each game has it's own physics, rules, key-configurations, etc.
Most of the games I enjoy, I could play them for years without getting bored, so long as someone kept developing new content. My favorite games are GTA series, or Morrowind, or games with big open worlds and lots of content. But if a FPS had a subscription services where I could purchase new levels each week (and especially if it was all part of some continuing story), it would take an extremly long time to get bored.
And I think a lot of people agree with me. Look at MMPOGs... people like them because of the human interaction of course... but people also like them because the game content never runs out (once you complete the quests, you can play meta-games such as guild politics, trading for profit, and there will also be expansions coming along)
I didn't think I'd ever hafta defend GTA on slashdot, but from the responses it seems like more people are dumping on the game than supporting it. Or maybe there's just some vicious moderators out there :P
:P
At any rate, Vice City was a huge improvement on GTA3 - the way you could purchase property and generate income. Money actually meant something in this game and so mugging someone on the street or holding up the pizza joint actually helped you to progress through. As per usual, the story was well-scripted and well-acted, which is more than I can say for 90% of the other mainstream games that are released. And maybe it's just cuz I like mafia movies, but it felt really cool to start out as a 'thug' and work your way up to becoming this mafia boss overlord. Damn, I might hafta play through vice city again
San Andreas took it to the next level by making the map like 3x larger than Vice City. They also added turf wars and (best of all) stats for your character. Now it was hardly an RPG, but you still improved as you played the game - your fitness level and firing accuracy and driving ability all increased with more experience. They also introduced girlfriends, which despite the hot coffee scandal, were a neat addition to the game - just another facet you could spend time on if you wanted to complete the entire thing. Again, it was well written and well performed, which again, if you've played any other mainstream releases, you'll know is a rarity unto itself.
So I dunno, maybe it's my latent criminal tendencies, but I love the GTA series...I have since the very first one. As long as they continue to improve it at the rate they're going, I'd happily play another dozen. I agree that if it had stayed at the quality level of GTA3 I probably would have tired long ago, but they've gone leaps and bounds between 3 and SA. For those who say they couldn't play more than 15 minutes of Vice City or San Andreas because it was 'more of the same,' I gotta say that you didn't really give it a chance to get into the story. Of course the first few missions are always the same, it's the way you introduce new players into the GTA world.
Different strokes I guess, but I'll gladly play some more GTA...might even get a PSP just for Liberty City stories when I start to see used ones for sale.