Xcast Online

Here's what you get when a mainstream media outlet, like CNBC, takes it upon themselves to "analyze" gaming trends or industry happenings. In a recent piece on the Grand Theft Auto franchise, the news outlet asks the question is the Rockstar-developed series - that just entered the current generation and sold nearly 13 million copies - "running out of gas?"

The author cites sluggish sales of GTA IV's Xbox 360-exclusive "The Lost and Damned" DLC (which we've never gotten confirmed sales figures for), and the less-than-stellar sales (and recent price cut) of the new DS installment Chinatown Wars as examples the open-world shooter is fizzling out, at least compared to when it was on the PS2. Chinatown Wars is one the most risky, hardcore and mature-themed games on the DS, a platform that is anything but. Plus the fact that it wasn't really marketed al that well.

CNBC state that though analysts claim TL&D has sold roughly a million copies over Xbox LIVE, that that is "hardly the barnburner the industry was expecting." They then go on to compare that $20, twenty-hour expansion pack to an already overwhelming fourty-plus hour game ... to the $10 "Variety Map Pack" for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare's multiplayer, which managed to sell over a million downloads in its first week last year. What? Excuse me as I editorialize for a minute: How is that even relevant? While both require access to Xbox LIVE, one is half as expensive, half as time consuming and not nearly as controversial. And suggesting that TL&D selling only a million units (which would equal roughly $20 in revenue on a single platform) makes it a failed product, thus a sign that there's a slow and apparent downfall of GTA? Really now.

Moving on, CNBC argue that the "lack of information" from MS and Rockstar and lack of "buzz" from the consumer about the second batch of GTA IV DLC, due this Fall, is also a sign of growing disinterest. Lack of "buzz" ... from something we know nothing about. Huh.

"So what’s happening here? Part of the blame can be pointed at the changing face of gaming. ... While the hardcore gamer is still alive and well, the influx of casual gamers has shifted where the gaming population as a whole is spending its money."

Interesting. The basic gist of this article is that, casual gaming not withstanding, the underperforming sales and 'low response' to DLC, as well as a mature game on a handheld means that arguably the most popular franchise of the last generation is dying? And that if the next add-on 'fails' "investors might begin questioning if the franchise is as ‘grand’ as it used to be"?  Wow.

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