johng Blog

Interesting article over at GameDaily about the research done into the financial worth of the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Here are the important bits,

• GTA is worth $900 million over the next 5 years (78% of Take-Two’s value)
• 5 more PSP games
• 3 more for the PC
• 2 for next-gen consoles

Strangely it doesn’t take into account that Liberty City Stories is being ported to current generation consoles as this has been announced and confirmed by Rockstar (for the PS2 at least). Any subsequent PSP games you could also assume would be ported, although five more games for the PSP seems like an awful lot, considering only three were released on the PS2.

James Brightman makes a comment at the end of this article which I must disagree with,

…eventually gamers are likely to tire of the GTA formula, or the games will no longer feel fresh when placed side-by-side with titles that perhaps improve on that formula.

Please show me one shred of evidence that suggests gamers are tiring of the formula, 45 million units sold worldwide certainly isn’t. Also lets not forget that although the basic game mechanics have remained unchanged each subsequent title has innovated in new ways and expanded the gameplay scope. If Rockstar continue this trend and don’t rest on their laurels then I see no reason that gamers would tire of it.

It would be nice to put GTA ’side-by-side’ with other titles but lets face it nothing comes close partly because other developers are daunted by the prospects of competing. Rock on Rockstar.