Quote:
Originally posted by dhamsaic
You bring up a good point, and it's one I've been wondering about a bit lately. That is, why hasn't Microsoft shelled out for exclusivity rights for GTA?
|
According to the last figures I saw, GTA3 for the PS2 has sold over six million copies worldwide. For reference, that's a very solid 20% of the ~30 million PS2s out there (not bad for a mature niche title), and about fifteen times higher than the announced sales criteria for the "PS2 Greatest Hits" line. (It should reach the other criteria (time of release) in mid-summer; picture the additional sales boost when it goes down to $24.99 then.)
Microsoft HOPES to ship five-to-six million Xboxes worldwide by the end of 2002. How much would Microsoft have to pay Rockstar/Take Two for exclusivity rights to offset that kind of sales loss, and to switch to a console with one-sixth the customer base?
A Windows:Linux and/or Mac::PS2:Xbox analogy would be flawed, but still nicely ironic.
The alternative, of course, would be for Microsoft to attempt to buy Rockstar/Take Two outright and adjust their priorities accordingly. I'm far from savvy enough about the corporate-takeover world to speculate as to how that might be accomplished.