We don't care about money... just never make a game this bad.
Debate has already broken out regarding Take Two and Rockstar's pronouncement that, "Grand Theft Auto IV's first week performance represents the largest launch in the history of interactive entertainment, and we believe these retail sales levels surpass any movie or music launch to date."
The Silicon Valley Insider, referring to figures from the BoxOfficeMojo site has laid its cards on the table, stating, 'The Biggest Video Game Of All Time Is A Mediocre Movie'. It supports this by stating that, "If GTA was a movie, it would be 77th on boxofficemojo.com's list. Just behind Ocean’s Eleven and just ahead of Pearl Harbor."
Now, the chart it refers to is BoxOfficeMojo's All Time Top 100.
However, using the same reference site's chart for Best Opening Week, we see the following for opening week (seven day) takings:
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest $196,019,502
Spider-Man 3 $182,070,572
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End $160,099,024
Spider-Man $151,622,504
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith $150,428,880
Nothing even in the region of $500m.
The SVI, however, also points out that "Most important: After gamers plunk down $60 or so for GTA IV, they're just about done spending money."
With DVD sales and rentals taken into consideration - that is a point well made. It's also a point very 'top of mind' for the video games industry. The majority of sales for any game occur in that first critical week. In some cases this can even boil down to Day One. So, this is why DownLoadable Content (DLC) is becoming of greater importance to the industry.
It's all about 'maintaining or elongating the tail'. That tail being the lifespan in terms of revenue raising of a product. The old model of premium price for the first few months and then budget pricing (or Gold or Classic or.... whatever) is simply not as appealing to stockholders as putting out a single product and then building on it at the least cost.
Looking at the figures claimed for the day one and week one launches of GTA IV, however, we'd still maintain that Take Two has not over-stated its case for one of the biggest entertainment launches in history. We'll put it all down to lies, damned lies and statistics.
The Silicon Valley Insider, referring to figures from the BoxOfficeMojo site has laid its cards on the table, stating, 'The Biggest Video Game Of All Time Is A Mediocre Movie'. It supports this by stating that, "If GTA was a movie, it would be 77th on boxofficemojo.com's list. Just behind Ocean’s Eleven and just ahead of Pearl Harbor."
Now, the chart it refers to is BoxOfficeMojo's All Time Top 100.
However, using the same reference site's chart for Best Opening Week, we see the following for opening week (seven day) takings:
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest $196,019,502
Spider-Man 3 $182,070,572
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End $160,099,024
Spider-Man $151,622,504
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith $150,428,880
Nothing even in the region of $500m.
The SVI, however, also points out that "Most important: After gamers plunk down $60 or so for GTA IV, they're just about done spending money."
With DVD sales and rentals taken into consideration - that is a point well made. It's also a point very 'top of mind' for the video games industry. The majority of sales for any game occur in that first critical week. In some cases this can even boil down to Day One. So, this is why DownLoadable Content (DLC) is becoming of greater importance to the industry.
It's all about 'maintaining or elongating the tail'. That tail being the lifespan in terms of revenue raising of a product. The old model of premium price for the first few months and then budget pricing (or Gold or Classic or.... whatever) is simply not as appealing to stockholders as putting out a single product and then building on it at the least cost.
Looking at the figures claimed for the day one and week one launches of GTA IV, however, we'd still maintain that Take Two has not over-stated its case for one of the biggest entertainment launches in history. We'll put it all down to lies, damned lies and statistics.
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Comments
deleted 8 May 2008 08:49
1/2
I have to agree that the games industry is pretty much done once you have paid,
with movies, you have Cinema, DVD/BluRay, Rentals, Digital Downloads, Sky + Cable BoxOffice-Movies, TV etc
Music, You Get the Single, Album, Radio, TV (MTV etc) Concerts and so on
Games stand still ok DLC adds some extra profit but nothing compared to movies and music and not to mention merchandise thats created from Movies and Music very little games can produce merchandise that sfor sale to a mass audience. which i dont understand as i would love to buy Resident Evil Stuff for instance!
but as far as profit goes, if you take into account the sales of GTA vs Iron Man its killed it.
with movies, you have Cinema, DVD/BluRay, Rentals, Digital Downloads, Sky + Cable BoxOffice-Movies, TV etc
Music, You Get the Single, Album, Radio, TV (MTV etc) Concerts and so on
Games stand still ok DLC adds some extra profit but nothing compared to movies and music and not to mention merchandise thats created from Movies and Music very little games can produce merchandise that sfor sale to a mass audience. which i dont understand as i would love to buy Resident Evil Stuff for instance!
but as far as profit goes, if you take into account the sales of GTA vs Iron Man its killed it.
PEG-12 8 May 2008 10:44
2/2
those SVI bozos need to learn some basic comprehension - specifically the terms "first week performance" and "launch"
then comparing first week performance with lifetime sales of another media property just makes SVI look like it was just scrabbling for a traffic grabbing headline
then comparing first week performance with lifetime sales of another media property just makes SVI look like it was just scrabbling for a traffic grabbing headline