Steffen_Shook December 8, 2009 PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 379 views Comments Print This Post  Email This Post

Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto series has had a long and successful life. The downloadable content additions from the past year (The Lost and Damned, The Ballad of Gay Tony, and both together in Liberty City Stories) would suggest that the franchise is the image of health and deserves whatever resources are needed to deliver excellent product to consumers.

One analyst would sharply disagree, however, and cite those DLC packs as specific examples of the weakening of GTA on Joystiq yesterday.. Ben Schachter of Broadpoint AmTech believes that although the DLC received all of the attention and respect of AAA top-seller, but failed to have sales that reciprocated this. “Has the Grand Theft Auto franchise peaked? Given the strength of GTA IV in 2008, the question may seem misplaced. But our concern is that the very highly rated new GTA content for Xbox as well as PSP and DS did not perform up to expectations in 2009. Now, we very clearly understand that these do not represent ‘true’ new GTA titles. However, the fact is that these were compelling titles, attractively priced, and reasonably well-promoted, yet they fell relatively flat.”

If you paid attention to gaming headlines shortly after the time of The Lost and Damned’s release, you may remember that Microsoft claimed that The Lost and Damned shattered previous DLC sales records on Xbox Live (MCVUK). This would almost seem to negate or nullify Schachter’s assessment. But consider that the scope of The Lost and Damned was much wider than most DLC efforts up to that point. Grand Theft Auto IV sold more copies than any other game in 2008 and any game up to that date, and the forward momentum of having so many copies in circulation likely ensured that any DLC would sell well. Sure, The Lost and Damned sold more than any other DLC before it, but did any before it really sell that much?

To make this even more confusing, Rockstar and Microsoft have not released official numbers on the sales of either The Lost and Damned or The Ballad of Gay Tony. Schachter believes the smoke and mirrors on official numbers is simply evidence of weaker than expected sales results.

Throwing in his two cents, tireless games industry analyst Michael Pachter believes that if the GTA IV DLC did perform less than expected, it is because of that so many people have not even finished the original Grand Theft Auto IV storyline (vg247). “…my guess is that fewer than 20 per cent of GTA owners finished the game so fewer were interested in DLC. I think that is a fair assessment, and don’t think that the slow pace of DLC sales reflects poor performance for the franchise.”

I have a biased opinion because I have willingly bought and enjoyed both DLC packs and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars on DS. I also eagerly await Rockstar’s upcoming western game Red Dead Redemption. Needless to say, I am not going to stop being a fan of Rockstar Games any time soon (as long as they keep the level of quality that they have maintained for the past 8-9 years) but cannot put Mr. Schachter’s claims out of the realm of possibility. Unfortunately, all franchises do have an end and GTA has been riding a wave of success that most AAA titles aspire to.

My final question is: what’s the deal with analysts and their last names rhyming? Pachter? Schachter? Is there some kind of rule somewhere that I’m missing? What the hell? That’s what was really bouncing around in my head instead of this GTA stuff. Too weird.