Sony loses GTA exclusivity before next gen

[chaphack]

http://biz.yahoo.com/ibd/030425/tech_1.html

Things can change but as it stands GTA for everyone soon.

As i said, the only future exclusives will be from either first party or money hat$ or shitty console sales. Higher devcosts == more whoring around.

 

[Panajev2001a]

The last two "Grand Theft Auto" games have provided an immersive story with multiple coinciding missions. The next one is due out in 2004. A month later, "Grand Theft Auto 3" and "Vice City" finish exclusive run on Sony's PlayStation 2 and will be available for Microsoft's Xbox and Nintendo's GameCube. "And they will sell, like, a jillion copies," Pachter said.

Your title is WAY misleading chap...

You are TRYING hard to start a flame war huh ?

The exclusivity deal was never set for... FOREVER... What that says is that the next GTA is going to be for Sony's platform and after 1 month of its release GTA3 and GTA3: Vice City will finish their timed exclusivity period...

This article DOES NOT TALK about the future after 2004 for new GTA titles and your "SONY LOOOOOST the exclusivity" is misleading...

 

[Blade]

Sony's GTA console exclusivity contract runs out in 2004.. so?

Look up a little word called "renew" in the dictionary, will ya? :?

 

[Paul]

It has been rumored that there is a GTA game in development for ps3, I don't know how much they could develop.. But I guess it's in the planning stages, if this rumour is even true.

 

[zurich]

It has been rumored that there is a GTA game in development for ps3, I don't know how much they could develop.. But I guess it's in the planning stages, if this rumour is even true.

Well if the PS3 launched with an exclusive GTA game.. well, I dont think we need to ponder that too long to figure out the results

 

[Deepak]

"The last two "Grand Theft Auto" games have provided an immersive story with multiple coinciding missions. The next one is due out in 2004. A month later, "Grand Theft Auto 3" and "Vice City" finish exclusive run on Sony's PlayStation 2 and will be available for Microsoft's Xbox and Nintendo's GameCube. "And they will sell, like, a jillion copies," Pachter said. "

and who is Pachter.....

"Electronic Arts Inc., the largest independent game publisher, is steering away from M-rated games. That's a mistake, says Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities."

end of story....

 

[DeathKnight]

As for GTA. I don't really care if it is released on other consoles or not after the exclusive contract is up. I played GTA3 on my PC. It was fun for a while then got boring. I'll likely play Vice City on my puter as well, it'll be fun for a while, then it'll get boring. No biggie.

 

[Vince]

The next one is due out in 2004. A month later, "Grand Theft Auto 3" and "Vice City" finish exclusive run on Sony's PlayStation 2 and will be available for Microsoft's Xbox and Nintendo's GameCube. "And they will sell, like, a jillion copies," Pachter said. "

So, even if we assume what this guy's said as truth - how does this affect anything important?

If the exclusitivity runs out on GTA3 and GTA:VC in 2004 on a date we'll call "[Sony's GTA4] + n months". What's the point?

Exclusitivity is similar to those "friends" you had while still an undergraduate that you'd "use" for that period "[Midterm/Research] - n days" to "relieve pressure". You use them and then throw their ass to the curb like a prostitute when a better thing comes along.

The point here is that when GTA4 is out, Sony doesn't care about the 3 year old GTA3 or GTA:VC. They've already used and abused the titles, sucking as much profit as possible from them - and they've moved on to GTA4.

If Microsoft really thinks that reselling a 3 year old scraps is going to be sucessful, then they have a rude awakening. Although my guess is that it's just Chappers... my guess is that MS knows how this works.

 

[LogisticX]

Nice find Deepack.

Anyway, from the get-go, it was clearly stated that GTA would remain exclusive to the Playstation brand until 2004.....so if it does make its way elsewhere afterwards is of no real surprise. For those who haven't played it yet, then that's great news, I personally loved the games since they offered so much gameplay diversity and neat physics and AI (albeit buggy at times).

Making it some huge announcement is kind of lame actually, kind of shows your inability to change Chap.

 

[Brimstone]

So, if the next GTA game comes out in 2004, it could come out on all 3 consoles? What is the exact date the Sony having GTA franchise games as exclusive run out?

 

[Evil_Cloud]

Sony can always extend their contract... rule of the highest bidder...

 

[jvd]

Ms or Nintendo could also buy an exclusive contract with them. Or they might relize it is better to release the game on all 3 systems and make even more ? who knows ? who really cares ?

 

[crystalcube]

So, if the next GTA game comes out in 2004, it could come out on all 3 consoles? What is the exact date the Sony having GTA franchise games as exclusive run out?

according to Gamespot

Under terms of the agreement, Grand Theft Auto III and future installments in the series released before October 2004 will be released only on the Sony PlayStation 2 video game platform.

 

[Almasy]

Personally, I think this is just another fanboy pipedream. Sony has demonstrated that, at least when it comes to business, it´s a really intelligent company and it´s 100% sure that they´ll do everything they can to keep the GTA franchise exclusive to them as long as the franchise retains its popularity.

 

[jvd]

So, if the next GTA game comes out in 2004, it could come out on all 3 consoles? What is the exact date the Sony having GTA franchise games as exclusive run out?

according to Gamespot

Under terms of the agreement, Grand Theft Auto III and future installments in the series released before October 2004 will be released only on the Sony PlayStation 2 video game platform.

So really the game just has to slip to nov of 04 and it can come out on all 3 systems .

 

[Brimstone]

If I was Rockstar one option I would consider would be to port GTA VC to both GC and XB, while at the same time start work on a GTA 4 for the next generation of consoles. People will have intrest in the game on a next generation system and they could probably get very lucrative deals from all 3 companies or get one insane exclusive deal. If they make GTA 4 for this generation I think they risk killing the cool factor the game has.

 

[crystalcube]

So really the game just has to slip to nov of 04 and it can come out on all 3 systems .

Or they can release one version in Sept 04 keeping it exclusive to PS2 for few months
and release slightly modified version for XB/GC during christmas.

 

[jvd]

So really the game just has to slip to nov of 04 and it can come out on all 3 systems .

Or they can release one version in Sept 04 keeping it exclusive to PS2 for few months
and release slightly modified version for XB/GC during christmas.

yea they could do that . Honestly i think its just going to be a tweaked version of the vice city engine which is basicly a tweaked version of the gta 3 engine. Since its already running on the pc it be easy to port to the xbox.

 

[Teasy]

Sony can always extend their contract... rule of the highest bidder...

But who says Sony will automatically be the highest bidder though?

Personally, I think this is just another pipedream. Sony has demonstrated that, at least when it comes to business, it´s a really intelligent company and it´s 100% sure that they´ll do everything they can to keep the GTA franchise exclusive to them as long as the franchise retains its popularity.

You don't have to be an intelligent company or have good business sense to see what the GTA series is worth. Everyone can see it, Sony will not be the only ones after this game when their current contract runs out. There's no guarentee that Sony will manage to keep GTA exclusivity even if they do everything in their power to do so.

I'm not saying I think GTA will not be Sony exclusive next gen. I just find it strange that so many people here seem to think that all Sony has to do is try and they'll have GTA exclusivity sewn up. I see no reason to believe that.

 

[CaptainHowdy]

if I were a developer, I think it would be hard having a hit like GTA3, because once you do that, your stuck, you cant continue to follow your own creative flow, you have to make the game, over and over, they will never be happy unless there is always a GTA game on the horizon...

It will be that way until they have to much money they can start hiring people to handle the franchise so they can move on to something else(like Miyamoto did)... and People will always diss you for whoring the franchise, yet they will be mad if you dont keep making them.. and you would eventually be found in the bathtub with a gut full of sleeping pills.. what a sad life.