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Microsoft pay 50 million to Rockstar for extra content

June 18, 2007 in News comments 6

We have all heard the news that Rockstar have only released content exclusive for the Xbox 360 so far and here is some proof that Rockstar aren't just doing this out of friendship with Microsoft. It turns out that Microsft are paying them a cool 50 million to bring the content exclusively to the Xbox Marketplace

The transcript from an internal Take-2 conference call that was undertaken on June 11th has found its way onto the internet and it includes a rather interesting quote from the company’s Chief Financial Officer, Lainie Goldstein. It reads as follows:

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.

This would suggest that Microsoft paid Take-2, GTAIV’s publisher, US$50 million for the exclusive downloadable content that will become available after the game’s release.
Bale Fire via gameplayer.com.au »
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  • 0
    Storm Jun 18, 07
    This is where M$ is really a threat...their cash flow. They make enough money off the XBL Marketplace, because people want the DLC to add to replay value and such, so getting rights to this means more profit for them in the long run (such as us buying the 360 version of multiplatform games for them)...although $50 million is a large amount.
  • 0
    SS4Gogeta Jun 18, 07
    Hmm... This could be a huge blow to the PS3. I honestly think that GTA sold a lot of PS2s for Sony.
  • 0
    Team Xtreme Jun 18, 07
    $50 million... That's a damn lot to get exclusive downloadable content, though as Storm said, it will pay off in the long run. I think this is a bit of a hit to PS3 and owners but Playstation is too big of a franchise to lose out just because of the 360 getting exclusive GTA content.
  • 2
    Redemption Jun 18, 07
    That's a truly staggering amount of money to be sure. But I wonder whether its a reflection too of how big this extra content will be.

    Don't focus on MS being a threat for being able to do this - if someone thinks MS is to blame for paying for exclusive content, what's Rockstar's roll in accepting money for the arrangement?

    I have no problems at all with companies paying for extra exclusive content. You might even consider it as upfront financing to defray the costs of developing this exclusive content. Now if Microsoft paid a company to have them turn what would have been normal content into exclusive content (eg remove already planned content and make it exclusive to the Xbox) then that's clearly foul play. The difference may seem slight but in the former situation Microsoft is shelling out money to ADD MORE STUFF for their gamers, while in the later they are flexing their money to TAKE AWAY something from someone else.
  • 0
    Infinite Jun 18, 07
    $50 million sure is a lot of money to pay for extra content in games. Well I guess Microsoft is really trying to get people to switch from PS3 owners to XBOX 360 owners.
  • 0
    Team Xtreme Jun 18, 07
    The way I see it $50 million is way to much to be ensuring that said content is exclusive to that console. I can't see $50 million profit coming out of two exclusive downloads for one game, no matter how big the game is.

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