Microsoft Pays $50 MILLION for Exclusive GTA IV Downloadable Content
A conference call held by Take Two last week revealed that Microsoft will be paying the publisher upwards of 50 million, just for several digital downloadable content packages for GTA IV. Within the deal, Microsoft will be paying 25 million per package, making them exclusive, to obviously hurt rival Sony PlayStation 3. The GTA series has been amongst the best selling series from the past generations.
“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 will be for the second episodic, the episode, and that will be later in fiscal ’08.”
“Excluding any asset impairments, we expect to recognize restructuring costs of approximately $50 million related to these actions. About half of these costs will be recognized during the balance of fiscal 2007 and the remainder in fiscal 2008.”
Is it possible that Microsoft tried to make GTA IV an exclusive to the Xbox 360 and simply didn’t want to fork over more cash? Probably not. Take Two most likely didn’t offer that as an option, as releasing the next GTA installment for multiple next-gen platforms will improve sales. Now let’s see how great this downloable content will be, and see if it really will hurt poor Sony even more.
[ViaSeekingAlpha, Xbox360Rally]
