The PS5 and Xbox 2 thread - it's happening

[deuxhero]

The best selling game on the PS5 has half the sales of the best selling PS4 game. Maybe there’s something on PS5 that’s sold better than Spider-Man 2, and we just don’t have official numbers, but Spider-Man 2 has sold ten million less than Spider-Man on PS4. And Spider-Man 2 is the only PS5 game with numbers released specifically that has sales anywhere close to ten million. The second best selling PS5 game with numbers is Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart with a little under four million.

Sony announced back in December of last year that the PS4 and PS5 have a monthly active PSN user count of 123 million. The vast majority of those users are on the PS4. Despite comparable sales for the same time period, PS5 users don’t seem to be buying games at the same rate they did on the PS4.

Sony's official reports to shareholders lump PS4+PS5 sales into a single box, and they still managed to drop after PS5 launch.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

 

[Elttharion]

Sony’s Value Reportedly Dropped By $10 Billion Following Revised PS5 Sales Forecast

Sony plunged $10 billion after its PS5 sales cut. But a bigger issue is its near decade low games margin​

Toto said that part of the reason why margins are being squeezed more recently is that software production costs have been rising.

“Spiderman 2,” which came out last year and is produced by Sony-owned Insomniac Games, cost around $300 million to make, according to gaming website Kotaku, citing an internal presentation that was leaked after a ransomware group hacked the company.

“So these budgets seemed to have a significant impact on their gaming margin over time,” Toto said.

Looks like Sony passed the point of diminishing returns for their ultra costly blockbusters, they are closer to money drains now. They are having a hard time selling more than 10 million copies while the budgets are growing to insane numbers and the whole division is getting screwed.

 

[lycanwarrior]

Sony’s Value Reportedly Dropped By $10 Billion Following Revised PS5 Sales Forecast

Sony plunged $10 billion after its PS5 sales cut. But a bigger issue is its near decade low games margin​

Toto said that part of the reason why margins are being squeezed more recently is that software production costs have been rising.

“Spiderman 2,” which came out last year and is produced by Sony-owned Insomniac Games, cost around $300 million to make, according to gaming website Kotaku, citing an internal presentation that was leaked after a ransomware group hacked the company.

“So these budgets seemed to have a significant impact on their gaming margin over time,” Toto said.

Looks like Sony passed the point of diminishing returns for their ultra costly blockbusters, they are closer to money drains now. They are having a hard time selling more than 10 million copies while the budgets are growing to insane numbers and the whole division is getting screwed.

Hence why Sony seem to be going hard into the live service/GAAS route. While their AAA single-player games probably won't completely disappear, expect to see some major cuts in production values. Either that or they going to increasing game prices, sooner rather than later.

I'm already hearing about game prices rising to $100 when the next gen consoles come around...

 

[Morgoth]

Hitting a natural ceiling, and no clever pursuit of new growth models is going to break through that.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Sony’s Value Reportedly Dropped By $10 Billion Following Revised PS5 Sales Forecast

Sony plunged $10 billion after its PS5 sales cut. But a bigger issue is its near decade low games margin​

Toto said that part of the reason why margins are being squeezed more recently is that software production costs have been rising.

“Spiderman 2,” which came out last year and is produced by Sony-owned Insomniac Games, cost around $300 million to make, according to gaming website Kotaku, citing an internal presentation that was leaked after a ransomware group hacked the company.

“So these budgets seemed to have a significant impact on their gaming margin over time,” Toto said.

Looks like Sony passed the point of diminishing returns for their ultra costly blockbusters, they are closer to money drains now. They are having a hard time selling more than 10 million copies while the budgets are growing to insane numbers and the whole division is getting screwed.

Hence why Sony seem to be going hard into the live service/GAAS route. While their AAA single-player games probably won't completely disappear, expect to see some major cuts in production values. Either that or they going to increasing game prices, sooner rather than later.

I'm already hearing about game prices rising to $100 when the next gen consoles come around...

$100 games would be completely stupid. They’re already not selling as much with the ten dollar price hike. If video games shot up to a hundred bucks, I don’t see anything keeping even half the amount of costumers they did at $59.99. Most stuff might be lucky to keep even a third or fourth of their audience. If anything, most games should cost less, and publishers should be trying to sell more games to more people for less money.

$100 games don’t even make sense in this modern gaming market were games are free-to-play now. Like the rumor that Rockstar is thinking of selling GTA6 for a hundred bucks is fucking stupid. As much as Rockstar makes on GTA the single player game, they make even more on Online and selling Shark Cards. If they were smart, they’d just sell GTA single player as it’s own thing; and not for $70. Which will be a huge giant high all on its own. And then a few months later they’d release whatever they’re calling the new GTA Online as a F2P game, and I’m sure that’d pull in vastly more money than GTA5’s Online does. Like GTA Online does well for them, especially a few years ago, but they could be racking in Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone money.

At this new $70 price tag, every games should look like a special edition release, and come with nice manuals and stuff like little art books. They should have at $59.99, but they really should at $69.00 and $69.99.

 

[Drakortha]

Wake me up when Sony and Microsoft pay their own customers to play their busywork games. Since that's how most games are designed now and can hardly be called entertainment anymore.

 

[lycanwarrior]

Sony’s Value Reportedly Dropped By $10 Billion Following Revised PS5 Sales Forecast

Sony plunged $10 billion after its PS5 sales cut. But a bigger issue is its near decade low games margin​

Toto said that part of the reason why margins are being squeezed more recently is that software production costs have been rising.

“Spiderman 2,” which came out last year and is produced by Sony-owned Insomniac Games, cost around $300 million to make, according to gaming website Kotaku, citing an internal presentation that was leaked after a ransomware group hacked the company.

“So these budgets seemed to have a significant impact on their gaming margin over time,” Toto said.

Looks like Sony passed the point of diminishing returns for their ultra costly blockbusters, they are closer to money drains now. They are having a hard time selling more than 10 million copies while the budgets are growing to insane numbers and the whole division is getting screwed.

Hence why Sony seem to be going hard into the live service/GAAS route. While their AAA single-player games probably won't completely disappear, expect to see some major cuts in production values. Either that or they going to increasing game prices, sooner rather than later.

I'm already hearing about game prices rising to $100 when the next gen consoles come around...

$100 games would be completely stupid. They’re already not selling as much with the ten dollar price hike. If video games shot up to a hundred bucks, I don’t see anything keeping even half the amount of costumers they did at $59.99. Most stuff might be lucky to keep even a third or fourth of their audience. If anything, most games should cost less, and publishers should be trying to sell more games to more people for less money.

$100 games don’t even make sense in this modern gaming market were games are free-to-play now. Like the rumor that Rockstar is thinking of selling GTA6 for a hundred bucks is fucking stupid. As much as Rockstar makes on GTA the single player game, they make even more on Online and selling Shark Cards. If they were smart, they’d just sell GTA single player as it’s own thing; and not for $70. Which will be a huge giant high all on its own. And then a few months later they’d release whatever they’re calling the new GTA Online as a F2P game, and I’m sure that’d pull in vastly more money than GTA5’s Online does. Like GTA Online does well for them, especially a few years ago, but they could be racking in Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone money.

At this new $70 price tag, every games should look like a special edition release, and come with nice manuals and stuff like little art books. They should have at $59.99, but they really should at $69.00 and $69.99.

I could see super-hyped games like GTA 6 come in at $100 simply because Rockstar knows they can get away with it.

Either that or the microtransactions are going to be majorly cranked up to 11...

Either way, there's gonna be a lot of angry people once it happens:

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

The thing is Rockstar can’t get away with it. Not that people won’t buy a $100 GTA. They will. But not enough people will for them to make the kind of money they were when they were selling it for $59.99. They’d definitely lose more than half the player base. And that price point would fucking kill growing the player base. Like you might be able to sell a $100 GTA to a bunch of guys that were in some form of secondary education from the time the GTA series started up to GTA5. But you’re losing that audience once the price goes up to $100, and GTA as a brand won’t mean anything to them going forward. It’s a very good way of turning GTA into a niche series.

If someone at some publisher is seriously thinking about $100 games, than they’re a moron. They’re a moron that thinks they’ll still be able to pull the majority of users they do at $59.99. And they won’t. I think they’d be lucky to get half the sales GTA5 had on release.

You might be able to get someone to dump $100 into a game over time. But a few bucks here and there that add up is different from asking for $100 up front, and I’m not sure people at publishing companies understand this idea anymore.

If Rockstar and Take-Two are trying to get more money out of Grand Theft Auto, what they should be doing is what they did with GTA4. Release the regular single player game. Then release stand alone GTA games about different characters doing different shit that reuse the city and game assets.

 

[tritosine2k]

Next console gen is a prediction in itself, optical media is dead

Sony Admits PS5 Could Be Its Last Console—But It’s Not All Bad News

 

[Morgoth]

"The End of xyz"

Clickbait shit. The PS5 will truly start to shine once the PS6 gets released.

 

[flyingjohn]

This gen is really weird, every single console gen has seen jumps in graphics/features while this one has jack shit minus a ssd that is nullified because of shader cache stuttering.
The games also exploded in cost. Miles Morales, practically a expansion with bare minimum changes cost around a 150 million to make, which is insane for a quick cash grab. In the old days, such a game would cost a round a couple of mil and would easily bank over 20.

 

[Azalin]

The thing is Rockstar can’t get away with it. Not that people won’t buy a $100 GTA. They will. But not enough people will for them to make the kind of money they were when they were selling it for $59.99. They’d definitely lose more than half the player base. And that price point would fucking kill growing the player base. Like you might be able to sell a $100 GTA to a bunch of guys that were in some form of secondary education from the time the GTA series started up to GTA5. But you’re losing that audience once the price goes up to $100, and GTA as a brand won’t mean anything to them going forward. It’s a very good way of turning GTA into a niche series.

If someone at some publisher is seriously thinking about $100 games, than they’re a moron. They’re a moron that thinks they’ll still be able to pull the majority of users they do at $59.99. And they won’t. I think they’d be lucky to get half the sales GTA5 had on release.

You might be able to get someone to dump $100 into a game over time. But a few bucks here and there that add up is different from asking for $100 up front, and I’m not sure people at publishing companies understand this idea anymore.

If Rockstar and Take-Two are trying to get more money out of Grand Theft Auto, what they should be doing is what they did with GTA4. Release the regular single player game. Then release stand alone GTA games about different characters doing different shit that reuse the city and game assets.

GTA5 has sold about 190 millions copies if I remember correctly and it's the second best selling game of all time after Minecraft and still brings in a ton of money every year from GTA online. GTA 4 was a success but sold only a fraction of what 5 sold so it's safe to say they will try to replicate the more successful formula.

BTW if anyone is going to try a higher price tag or even a 100 dollar one it's going to be using such a brand name

I could see super-hyped games like GTA 6 come in at $100 simply because Rockstar knows they can get away with it.

Either that or the microtransactions are going to be majorly cranked up to 11...

Either way, there's gonna be a lot of angry people once it happens:

Not sure how successful a potable only console can be in the era of smartphones

 

[Jaedar]

So...Sony won the console war.

Noone won and we lost...

You crazy? The pc gaming master race won. Open platform defeating the closed ones is a massive win for consumers.

 

[Ezekiel]

So...Sony won the console war.

Noone won and we lost...

You crazy? The pc gaming master race won. Open platform defeating the closed ones is a massive win for consumers.

PC users lost too. It's because of how limited the audience of these expensive, mostly boring movie games is that they have to be ported. Would rather have more variety and experimentation in mid-budget games again even if it meant fewer of them came to my platform of choice.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

The thing is Rockstar can’t get away with it. Not that people won’t buy a $100 GTA. They will. But not enough people will for them to make the kind of money they were when they were selling it for $59.99. They’d definitely lose more than half the player base. And that price point would fucking kill growing the player base. Like you might be able to sell a $100 GTA to a bunch of guys that were in some form of secondary education from the time the GTA series started up to GTA5. But you’re losing that audience once the price goes up to $100, and GTA as a brand won’t mean anything to them going forward. It’s a very good way of turning GTA into a niche series.

If someone at some publisher is seriously thinking about $100 games, than they’re a moron. They’re a moron that thinks they’ll still be able to pull the majority of users they do at $59.99. And they won’t. I think they’d be lucky to get half the sales GTA5 had on release.

You might be able to get someone to dump $100 into a game over time. But a few bucks here and there that add up is different from asking for $100 up front, and I’m not sure people at publishing companies understand this idea anymore.

If Rockstar and Take-Two are trying to get more money out of Grand Theft Auto, what they should be doing is what they did with GTA4. Release the regular single player game. Then release stand alone GTA games about different characters doing different shit that reuse the city and game assets.

GTA5 has sold about 190 millions copies if I remember correctly and it's the second best selling game of all time after Minecraft and still brings in a ton of money every year from GTA online. GTA 4 was a success but sold only a fraction of what 5 sold so it's safe to say they will try to replicate the more successful formula.

BTW if anyone is going to try a higher price tag or even a 100 dollar one it's going to be using such a brand name

I could see super-hyped games like GTA 6 come in at $100 simply because Rockstar knows they can get away with it.

Either that or the microtransactions are going to be majorly cranked up to 11...

Either way, there's gonna be a lot of angry people once it happens:

Not sure how successful a potable only console can be in the era of smartphones

GTA5 selling 195 million copies has something to do with people buying it when it’s discounted for Shark Cards. At least that’s what I’ve heard. It’s apparently the cheapest way to get the most Shark Cards. What you’re essentially seeing with those GTA5 sales at a certain point is online Shark Card purchases. I’m sure it’s not all that, but it seems to mostly be that.

And while GTA Online makes lots of money now, it would make vastly more money if it was free-to-play and functioned with the same Shark Card system they have now. As much has GTA makes a years with Online, there is no year where they’ve ever done as good as the best years of Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone.

---

Nobody making a modern handheld system would have it only be a handheld system. They’d be doing it like the Switch. I mean of course it’d be like the Switch, the Switch would be the whole reason they’d even do handheld systems. It’s probably the whole reason Valve released the Steam Deck, since before that (and probably after) the Switch had taken Steam’s place as the go to for indie titles.

 

[Rahdulan]

>later stage
>of a phone charger and streaming device that has 4
>4 exclusives

Number of exclusives aside PS5 did come out in 2020. Thing is the 7th generation essentially warped everyone's mind in terms of how long a single generation lasts. We're just now reaching the boiling point as big budget games take longer and longer to develop. Your project cannot take the entire console's lifespan worth of development time.

 

[deuxhero]

If we're taking "latter stage" as the most generous of "past halfway" that's still putting discontinued in ~May 2027 at the latest (and consoles rarely have any good new games in their last year). That's about normal for consoles, but they rarely have good games released in their final year, Sony already announced they have no big exclusives planned for over a year, and software sales are so bad that even games announced literally yesterday are cross-gen with PS4 (I know at least one instance a few years ago of a company releasing a game for Switch+PC+PS4+PS5, then releasing the sequel on only Switch+PC+PS4 because PS5 sales were so bad). I think there's a non-zero chance the final PS4 game will also be the final PS5 game, and it's pathetic we're even considering that.

 

[Zarniwoop]

This will kill Gamepass. Its biggest appeal was being able to play games day-1 without having to pay $70 for each game.

There is no fucking appeal in this. Games you love you'll always want to own, and the rest is just shovelware. Philly's Netflix for Games model was deeply flawed to begin with.

Most people rented most of the games they played when that was an easy option. Needing to own all the games you play is a fairly new thing all things considered, it’s a post 2011 death of Blockbuster and smaller movie rental places thing.

Pfft, filthy casuls.

In my day, you sailed the 7 seas to get the games you really wanted. And you had to work for it. You had to take your console to a dodgy Chinaman at a fleamarket or some back alley shop to install a special chip first.

 

[tritosine2k]

>later stage
>of a phone charger and streaming device that has 4
>4 exclusives

. Your project cannot take the entire console's lifespan worth of development time.

Hence remasters. And EA can't be bothered with remakes even
&
the ridiculous thing here isn't sony but bottomfeeder pc gaymers not getting their short-term consoomable xD.

 

[Azalin]

The thing is Rockstar can’t get away with it. Not that people won’t buy a $100 GTA. They will. But not enough people will for them to make the kind of money they were when they were selling it for $59.99. They’d definitely lose more than half the player base. And that price point would fucking kill growing the player base. Like you might be able to sell a $100 GTA to a bunch of guys that were in some form of secondary education from the time the GTA series started up to GTA5. But you’re losing that audience once the price goes up to $100, and GTA as a brand won’t mean anything to them going forward. It’s a very good way of turning GTA into a niche series.

If someone at some publisher is seriously thinking about $100 games, than they’re a moron. They’re a moron that thinks they’ll still be able to pull the majority of users they do at $59.99. And they won’t. I think they’d be lucky to get half the sales GTA5 had on release.

You might be able to get someone to dump $100 into a game over time. But a few bucks here and there that add up is different from asking for $100 up front, and I’m not sure people at publishing companies understand this idea anymore.

If Rockstar and Take-Two are trying to get more money out of Grand Theft Auto, what they should be doing is what they did with GTA4. Release the regular single player game. Then release stand alone GTA games about different characters doing different shit that reuse the city and game assets.

GTA5 has sold about 190 millions copies if I remember correctly and it's the second best selling game of all time after Minecraft and still brings in a ton of money every year from GTA online. GTA 4 was a success but sold only a fraction of what 5 sold so it's safe to say they will try to replicate the more successful formula.

BTW if anyone is going to try a higher price tag or even a 100 dollar one it's going to be using such a brand name

I could see super-hyped games like GTA 6 come in at $100 simply because Rockstar knows they can get away with it.

Either that or the microtransactions are going to be majorly cranked up to 11...

Either way, there's gonna be a lot of angry people once it happens:

Not sure how successful a potable only console can be in the era of smartphones

GTA5 selling 195 million copies has something to do with people buying it when it’s discounted for Shark Cards. At least that’s what I’ve heard. It’s apparently the cheapest way to get the most Shark Cards. What you’re essentially seeing with those GTA5 sales at a certain point is online Shark Card purchases. I’m sure it’s not all that, but it seems to mostly be that.

And while GTA Online makes lots of money now, it would make vastly more money if it was free-to-play and functioned with the same Shark Card system they have now. As much has GTA makes a years with Online, there is no year where they’ve ever done as good as the best years of Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone.

---

Nobody making a modern handheld system would have it only be a handheld system. They’d be doing it like the Switch. I mean of course it’d be like the Switch, the Switch would be the whole reason they’d even do handheld systems. It’s probably the whole reason Valve released the Steam Deck, since before that (and probably after) the Switch had taken Steam’s place as the go to for indie titles.

The numbers are those mentioned by Take Two themselves during investor briefings, many of those copies would be discounted like with most games these days. I am sure Skyrim sold a ton of discounted copies in various sales during the last decade and the same goes for pretty much every game, including GTA 4. Doesn't change the fact that 5 has sold almost 8 times what 4 sold.
BTW it's 195 million now while Red Dead 2 is at 61 mil.

https://readwrite.com/grand-theft-auto-5-has-sold-195-million-copies/

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/charted-grand-theft-auto-revenue-and-costs/

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

The thing is Rockstar can’t get away with it. Not that people won’t buy a $100 GTA. They will. But not enough people will for them to make the kind of money they were when they were selling it for $59.99. They’d definitely lose more than half the player base. And that price point would fucking kill growing the player base. Like you might be able to sell a $100 GTA to a bunch of guys that were in some form of secondary education from the time the GTA series started up to GTA5. But you’re losing that audience once the price goes up to $100, and GTA as a brand won’t mean anything to them going forward. It’s a very good way of turning GTA into a niche series.

If someone at some publisher is seriously thinking about $100 games, than they’re a moron. They’re a moron that thinks they’ll still be able to pull the majority of users they do at $59.99. And they won’t. I think they’d be lucky to get half the sales GTA5 had on release.

You might be able to get someone to dump $100 into a game over time. But a few bucks here and there that add up is different from asking for $100 up front, and I’m not sure people at publishing companies understand this idea anymore.

If Rockstar and Take-Two are trying to get more money out of Grand Theft Auto, what they should be doing is what they did with GTA4. Release the regular single player game. Then release stand alone GTA games about different characters doing different shit that reuse the city and game assets.

GTA5 has sold about 190 millions copies if I remember correctly and it's the second best selling game of all time after Minecraft and still brings in a ton of money every year from GTA online. GTA 4 was a success but sold only a fraction of what 5 sold so it's safe to say they will try to replicate the more successful formula.

BTW if anyone is going to try a higher price tag or even a 100 dollar one it's going to be using such a brand name

I could see super-hyped games like GTA 6 come in at $100 simply because Rockstar knows they can get away with it.

Either that or the microtransactions are going to be majorly cranked up to 11...

Either way, there's gonna be a lot of angry people once it happens:

Not sure how successful a potable only console can be in the era of smartphones

GTA5 selling 195 million copies has something to do with people buying it when it’s discounted for Shark Cards. At least that’s what I’ve heard. It’s apparently the cheapest way to get the most Shark Cards. What you’re essentially seeing with those GTA5 sales at a certain point is online Shark Card purchases. I’m sure it’s not all that, but it seems to mostly be that.

And while GTA Online makes lots of money now, it would make vastly more money if it was free-to-play and functioned with the same Shark Card system they have now. As much has GTA makes a years with Online, there is no year where they’ve ever done as good as the best years of Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone.

---

Nobody making a modern handheld system would have it only be a handheld system. They’d be doing it like the Switch. I mean of course it’d be like the Switch, the Switch would be the whole reason they’d even do handheld systems. It’s probably the whole reason Valve released the Steam Deck, since before that (and probably after) the Switch had taken Steam’s place as the go to for indie titles.

The numbers are those mentioned by Take Two themselves during investor briefings, many of those copies would be discounted like with most games these days. I am sure Skyrim sold a ton of discounted copies in various sales during the last decade and the same goes for pretty much every game, including GTA 4. Doesn't change the fact that 5 has sold almost 8 times what 4 sold.
BTW it's 195 million now while Red Dead 2 is at 61 mil.

https://readwrite.com/grand-theft-auto-5-has-sold-195-million-copies/

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/charted-grand-theft-auto-revenue-and-costs/

Yeah, I know the numbers. Maybe you just didn’t understand what I was saying. I feel like there’s some confusion going on.

The whole reason Grand Theft Auto 5 has the kind of sales numbers it does is because there’s a Premium Edition & Megalodon Shark Card Bundle that’s a cheaper way of getting the Megalodon Shark Card than just buying the GTA Megalodon Shark Card. When the bundle goes on sale, (it’s on sale on PlayStation right now for $39.99) people rebuy the game for the Megalodon Shark Cards because those Shark Cards cost $99.99. So what you’re essentially seeing with that high sales number is Online Shark Cards purchases, because people are rebuying the game for the Online GTA money the Shark Cards give you. Also, they’re buying the game at a discount so they don’t have to spend $99.99 on Shark Cards; if GTA5 cost $100 you wouldn’t even kind of see those sales numbers. You wouldn’t even see GTA5’s release numbers when people were actually just buying the game to play it. Usually you don’t get to see a games digital sales, but that GTA bundle give you somewhat of a glimpse into that given the reason people buy it.

So, the reason GTA has such high sales numbers is because people that already own and play GTA are buying the game over and over for GTA Online money. If Online was F2P, there’d be more people playing it, (since people with console could play Online without paying for PSN or Xbox Live) which would give Rockstar a larger pool of people to sell to, which would make Rockstar more money. And they could still sell the standard single GTA as its own thing and still make billions off that too.

Red Dead Redemption 2 doesn’t seem have a bundle for Online money like GTA5 does, which is probably why you see such a huge discrepancy in sales. But even if it did, Red Dead Online is dead. Red Dead Online completely bombed, it failed, it would seem Rockstar can’t sustain two online modes like that for two different games at the same time.

 

[Azalin]

The thing is Rockstar can’t get away with it. Not that people won’t buy a $100 GTA. They will. But not enough people will for them to make the kind of money they were when they were selling it for $59.99. They’d definitely lose more than half the player base. And that price point would fucking kill growing the player base. Like you might be able to sell a $100 GTA to a bunch of guys that were in some form of secondary education from the time the GTA series started up to GTA5. But you’re losing that audience once the price goes up to $100, and GTA as a brand won’t mean anything to them going forward. It’s a very good way of turning GTA into a niche series.

If someone at some publisher is seriously thinking about $100 games, than they’re a moron. They’re a moron that thinks they’ll still be able to pull the majority of users they do at $59.99. And they won’t. I think they’d be lucky to get half the sales GTA5 had on release.

You might be able to get someone to dump $100 into a game over time. But a few bucks here and there that add up is different from asking for $100 up front, and I’m not sure people at publishing companies understand this idea anymore.

If Rockstar and Take-Two are trying to get more money out of Grand Theft Auto, what they should be doing is what they did with GTA4. Release the regular single player game. Then release stand alone GTA games about different characters doing different shit that reuse the city and game assets.

GTA5 has sold about 190 millions copies if I remember correctly and it's the second best selling game of all time after Minecraft and still brings in a ton of money every year from GTA online. GTA 4 was a success but sold only a fraction of what 5 sold so it's safe to say they will try to replicate the more successful formula.

BTW if anyone is going to try a higher price tag or even a 100 dollar one it's going to be using such a brand name

I could see super-hyped games like GTA 6 come in at $100 simply because Rockstar knows they can get away with it.

Either that or the microtransactions are going to be majorly cranked up to 11...

Either way, there's gonna be a lot of angry people once it happens:

Not sure how successful a potable only console can be in the era of smartphones

GTA5 selling 195 million copies has something to do with people buying it when it’s discounted for Shark Cards. At least that’s what I’ve heard. It’s apparently the cheapest way to get the most Shark Cards. What you’re essentially seeing with those GTA5 sales at a certain point is online Shark Card purchases. I’m sure it’s not all that, but it seems to mostly be that.

And while GTA Online makes lots of money now, it would make vastly more money if it was free-to-play and functioned with the same Shark Card system they have now. As much has GTA makes a years with Online, there is no year where they’ve ever done as good as the best years of Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone.

---

Nobody making a modern handheld system would have it only be a handheld system. They’d be doing it like the Switch. I mean of course it’d be like the Switch, the Switch would be the whole reason they’d even do handheld systems. It’s probably the whole reason Valve released the Steam Deck, since before that (and probably after) the Switch had taken Steam’s place as the go to for indie titles.

The numbers are those mentioned by Take Two themselves during investor briefings, many of those copies would be discounted like with most games these days. I am sure Skyrim sold a ton of discounted copies in various sales during the last decade and the same goes for pretty much every game, including GTA 4. Doesn't change the fact that 5 has sold almost 8 times what 4 sold.
BTW it's 195 million now while Red Dead 2 is at 61 mil.

https://readwrite.com/grand-theft-auto-5-has-sold-195-million-copies/

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/charted-grand-theft-auto-revenue-and-costs/

Yeah, I know the numbers. Maybe you just didn’t understand what I was saying. I feel like there’s some confusion going on.

The whole reason Grand Theft Auto 5 has the kind of sales numbers it does is because there’s a Premium Edition & Megalodon Shark Card Bundle that’s a cheaper way of getting the Megalodon Shark Card than just buying the GTA Megalodon Shark Card. When the bundle goes on sale, (it’s on sale on PlayStation right now for $39.99) people rebuy the game for the Megalodon Shark Cards because those Shark Cards cost $99.99. So what you’re essentially seeing with that high sales number is Online Shark Cards purchases, because people are rebuying the game for the Online GTA money the Shark Cards give you. Also, they’re buying the game at a discount so they don’t have to spend $99.99 on Shark Cards; if GTA5 cost $100 you wouldn’t even kind of see those sales numbers. You wouldn’t even see GTA5’s release numbers when people were actually just buying the game to play it. Usually you don’t get to see a games digital sales, but that GTA bundle give you somewhat of a glimpse into that given the reason people buy it.

So, the reason GTA has such high sales numbers is because people that already own and play GTA are buying the game over and over for GTA Online money. If Online was F2P, there’d be more people playing it, (since people with console could play Online without paying for PSN or Xbox Live) which would give Rockstar a larger pool of people to sell to, which would make Rockstar more money. And they could still sell the standard single GTA as its own thing and still make billions off that too.

Red Dead Redemption 2 doesn’t seem have a bundle for Online money like GTA5 does, which is probably why you see such a huge discrepancy in sales. But even if it did, Red Dead Online is dead. Red Dead Online completely bombed, it failed, it would seem Rockstar can’t sustain two online modes like that for two different games at the same time.

You don't seem to understand what I am saying, Rockstar doesn't give a fuck why people are buying it,if it's a first time or someone getting it just for Shark Cards,as long as they get money.They seem to be able to have the cake and eat it, a huge player base that is willing to buy the game and then keep spending money on it,no reason to change the model that worked for them so far

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

The thing is Rockstar can’t get away with it. Not that people won’t buy a $100 GTA. They will. But not enough people will for them to make the kind of money they were when they were selling it for $59.99. They’d definitely lose more than half the player base. And that price point would fucking kill growing the player base. Like you might be able to sell a $100 GTA to a bunch of guys that were in some form of secondary education from the time the GTA series started up to GTA5. But you’re losing that audience once the price goes up to $100, and GTA as a brand won’t mean anything to them going forward. It’s a very good way of turning GTA into a niche series.

If someone at some publisher is seriously thinking about $100 games, than they’re a moron. They’re a moron that thinks they’ll still be able to pull the majority of users they do at $59.99. And they won’t. I think they’d be lucky to get half the sales GTA5 had on release.

You might be able to get someone to dump $100 into a game over time. But a few bucks here and there that add up is different from asking for $100 up front, and I’m not sure people at publishing companies understand this idea anymore.

If Rockstar and Take-Two are trying to get more money out of Grand Theft Auto, what they should be doing is what they did with GTA4. Release the regular single player game. Then release stand alone GTA games about different characters doing different shit that reuse the city and game assets.

GTA5 has sold about 190 millions copies if I remember correctly and it's the second best selling game of all time after Minecraft and still brings in a ton of money every year from GTA online. GTA 4 was a success but sold only a fraction of what 5 sold so it's safe to say they will try to replicate the more successful formula.

BTW if anyone is going to try a higher price tag or even a 100 dollar one it's going to be using such a brand name

I could see super-hyped games like GTA 6 come in at $100 simply because Rockstar knows they can get away with it.

Either that or the microtransactions are going to be majorly cranked up to 11...

Either way, there's gonna be a lot of angry people once it happens:

Not sure how successful a potable only console can be in the era of smartphones

GTA5 selling 195 million copies has something to do with people buying it when it’s discounted for Shark Cards. At least that’s what I’ve heard. It’s apparently the cheapest way to get the most Shark Cards. What you’re essentially seeing with those GTA5 sales at a certain point is online Shark Card purchases. I’m sure it’s not all that, but it seems to mostly be that.

And while GTA Online makes lots of money now, it would make vastly more money if it was free-to-play and functioned with the same Shark Card system they have now. As much has GTA makes a years with Online, there is no year where they’ve ever done as good as the best years of Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone.

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Nobody making a modern handheld system would have it only be a handheld system. They’d be doing it like the Switch. I mean of course it’d be like the Switch, the Switch would be the whole reason they’d even do handheld systems. It’s probably the whole reason Valve released the Steam Deck, since before that (and probably after) the Switch had taken Steam’s place as the go to for indie titles.

The numbers are those mentioned by Take Two themselves during investor briefings, many of those copies would be discounted like with most games these days. I am sure Skyrim sold a ton of discounted copies in various sales during the last decade and the same goes for pretty much every game, including GTA 4. Doesn't change the fact that 5 has sold almost 8 times what 4 sold.
BTW it's 195 million now while Red Dead 2 is at 61 mil.

https://readwrite.com/grand-theft-auto-5-has-sold-195-million-copies/

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/charted-grand-theft-auto-revenue-and-costs/

Yeah, I know the numbers. Maybe you just didn’t understand what I was saying. I feel like there’s some confusion going on.

The whole reason Grand Theft Auto 5 has the kind of sales numbers it does is because there’s a Premium Edition & Megalodon Shark Card Bundle that’s a cheaper way of getting the Megalodon Shark Card than just buying the GTA Megalodon Shark Card. When the bundle goes on sale, (it’s on sale on PlayStation right now for $39.99) people rebuy the game for the Megalodon Shark Cards because those Shark Cards cost $99.99. So what you’re essentially seeing with that high sales number is Online Shark Cards purchases, because people are rebuying the game for the Online GTA money the Shark Cards give you. Also, they’re buying the game at a discount so they don’t have to spend $99.99 on Shark Cards; if GTA5 cost $100 you wouldn’t even kind of see those sales numbers. You wouldn’t even see GTA5’s release numbers when people were actually just buying the game to play it. Usually you don’t get to see a games digital sales, but that GTA bundle give you somewhat of a glimpse into that given the reason people buy it.

So, the reason GTA has such high sales numbers is because people that already own and play GTA are buying the game over and over for GTA Online money. If Online was F2P, there’d be more people playing it, (since people with console could play Online without paying for PSN or Xbox Live) which would give Rockstar a larger pool of people to sell to, which would make Rockstar more money. And they could still sell the standard single GTA as its own thing and still make billions off that too.

Red Dead Redemption 2 doesn’t seem have a bundle for Online money like GTA5 does, which is probably why you see such a huge discrepancy in sales. But even if it did, Red Dead Online is dead. Red Dead Online completely bombed, it failed, it would seem Rockstar can’t sustain two online modes like that for two different games at the same time.

You don't seem to understand what I am saying, Rockstar doesn't give a fuck why people are buying it,if it's a first time or someone getting it just for Shark Cards,as long as they get money.They seem to be able to have the cake and eat it, a huge player base that is willing to buy the game and then keep spending money on it,no reason to change the model that worked for them so far

Jesus fucking Christ, yeah, but they’d make even more money if it was free-to-play. I get what you’re saying. But you seem to be under the impression that those 195 million copies sold is some kind of reflection of the size of the GTA 5 and GTA Online player base. Here’s the thing... it’s not. Because the majority of those sales seem to be people that already own the game just getting a deal on Shark Cards. If a GTA Online 2 was F2P they’d have even more people to sell those Shark Cards to, which would make them vastly larger amounts of money. You want to see the kind of money GTA Online could be making? Go look up what GTA Online pulls in annually, then go look at what Fortnite does. GTA Online could be pulling in billions every years, but they can’t do that with the model they have right now.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

What a pathetic fucking console gen
Almost 5 years in and barely any games made for it
And now, when major studios were finally ditching the old ass, busted piece of shit that is the previous gen...

The PS5 in particular should win a guinness award for being the most expensive paper weight