If You Fail, Throw More Money At It!

In a conference call GTA IV publisher Take-Two stated that Microsoft had paid $50 Million for the company to produce and make exclusive, downloadable episodic content for the vastly popular murder simulator. $50 Million is a lot of money in the games industry, many blockbuster titles cost less to make, never mind pieces of a game. It's not surprising though that it is so expensive, both Sony and Microsoft understand the importance of GTA IV as a console seller and any sort of edge in release is high-demand.

With additional content locked to the 360, and a cheaper price point gamers looking to enter the next-generation of games with the title's release will have an interesting choice. Most GTA fans are loyal Sony fans, but as we've seen, brand loyalty can only go so far when your console is a let-down on several fronts. It's interesting that such an important factor in the console race is not decided by innovation, like the Wii, but just plain old bags of cash.

Buying up exclusives is a very expensive habit, but if any company has the money to throw into a project it's Microsoft. The original Xbox failed largely because the PS2 held exclusivity over many important titles. The most popular of course was Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. With the 360 Big Bill and company seem to have realized the err of their ways. With almost weekly announcements of former exclusives going multi-platform and the frequent company purchases on Microsoft's Visa bill the 360 has no problem leveling and even gaining some ground on the battlefield. The only major series left exclusive to Sony; Gran Turismo, God of War, Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy, two of which could easily appear on the 360 if Microsoft plays it's cards right.

What's a troubled Kaz Hirai to do? It seems impossible to wrestle exclusives from third party developers, they follow the money and the 360's install base is too large to ignore. Sony Computer Entertainment needs to seriously get adamant about making high-quality first party titles. Some would argue that Resistance and Motorstorm already provide this on the console and that Heavenly Sword, Lair and LittleBigPlanet are plenty of examples. The problem with this ideology is that all these games are the first of their kind. None of them have the established legacy quality you find in your Halo's and Fable's. It's very hard to sell a system based on an entirely new franchise.

When Gears of War launched there was an instant spike in 360 console sales, gamers wanted the game and were willing to buy systems for it, tripling the prior year's holiday sales with 4.4 million units. How is this possible? Microsoft Games Studios invested heavily in Gear's advertising, they got David Fincher's studio to produce the commercial that played constantly in theatres and on television. You could hardly access a game site or read a magazine without seeing an advertisement for it and press hyped the game to new levels. It also certainly did not hurt that the game was a masterpiece receiving a metacritic.com review of 94/100.

Gears of War has now reached legacy status, several sequels, books and even a movie are in the works and gamers want more. Sony needs to do the same with their titles, build them well and market well. It's the only combination that can save them from the massive exclusive hungry money machine behind the Xbox 360.