BornOfFire
06-18-2007, 06:36 PM
When Take-Two Interactive laid out their 2007 and 2008 release schedule, they casually left out PlayStation 3 in the column detailing the episodic content for Grand Theft Auto IV (http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=3150593). There's a reason for that: Microsoft is paying $50 million for exclusivity. Take-Two revealed the financial details during a Q&A session regarding their shareholders conference call for their most recent quarter.
This isn't the first time Microsoft's leveraged their financial war chest with Grand Theft Auto IV, as 1UP previously heard the company paid at least $5 million to announce the game first at their E3 2006 press conference. Take-Two says the first wave of episodic content will arrive on Xbox 360 in March 2008, with another batch scheduled later in "fiscal 08."
"The first 25 [million] is for the first episodic content package that's supposed to go out and that is in March of '08. That's why it moved into current because it's in the next 12 months. The second 25 [million] will be for the second episodic, the episode, and that will be later in fiscal '08," said Lainie Goldstein, Take-Two's new CFO.
Earlier in the conference call, Chairman of the Board Strauss Zelnick addressed the difficulty in addressing the differences between multiplatform releases:
"Obviously we've episodic content coming for X-Box 360 for the title and because the consoles do differ, there will be some differences in the games. My kids actually have three game consoles at home and sometimes play the same titles on different consoles and they see some differences and they find that compelling. So there'll be -- these obviously are not going to be identical experiences but they are going to be very, very close." Does this mean PS3 won't receive GTA IV episodic content? Not necessarily, but Rockstar Games isn't saying anything...yet.
This isn't the first time Microsoft's leveraged their financial war chest with Grand Theft Auto IV, as 1UP previously heard the company paid at least $5 million to announce the game first at their E3 2006 press conference. Take-Two says the first wave of episodic content will arrive on Xbox 360 in March 2008, with another batch scheduled later in "fiscal 08."
"The first 25 [million] is for the first episodic content package that's supposed to go out and that is in March of '08. That's why it moved into current because it's in the next 12 months. The second 25 [million] will be for the second episodic, the episode, and that will be later in fiscal '08," said Lainie Goldstein, Take-Two's new CFO.
Earlier in the conference call, Chairman of the Board Strauss Zelnick addressed the difficulty in addressing the differences between multiplatform releases:
"Obviously we've episodic content coming for X-Box 360 for the title and because the consoles do differ, there will be some differences in the games. My kids actually have three game consoles at home and sometimes play the same titles on different consoles and they see some differences and they find that compelling. So there'll be -- these obviously are not going to be identical experiences but they are going to be very, very close." Does this mean PS3 won't receive GTA IV episodic content? Not necessarily, but Rockstar Games isn't saying anything...yet.