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Post by LuapYllier on Aug 7, 2014 14:48:43 GMT
I have a credible source in a high level position in the gaming industry that I can't really get into but I think you guys should trust me enough to take my word that I am not just spouting made up stuff. The source is not directly involved in GTA though so there is a modicum of doubt involved in the eventual outcome.
A. Rockstar shareholders are not pleased with the financials from GTAO. They are pushing Rockstar to squeeze more money out of it. Many of the cashcard conspiracy crap is in fact mostly true.
B. Rockstar was rushed into release at least 6 months before they were ready, had made it very clear they were not ready but shareholders insisted on the release date. The devs are unhappy with the resulting game as it was fully intended to focus on hiests and that aspect got cut to release early.
C. The dissapointing direction and financials are resulting in a plan change that will materialize as a full scrapping of the project within a year of release on current gen consoles and PC. This is far shorter than originally intended.
D. The port to new consoles will be nothing more than visual and performance upgrades...it will be the exact same game.
E. Rockstar has three development houses, one large and two smaller groups. The large one is currently focusing on two things, a new game engine to be the platform for GTA 6 (not coming any time soon) and their new hopeful baby being a prequal to Red Dead with an online intended to be more ambitious than GTAO. The two smaller groups are each working on seperate paid DLC type games for GTA 5 similar to the three games they put out between GTAIV and GTAV like Ballad of Gay Tony. These will be released on current gen to squeeze more money out of the V game engine while they work on VI engine.
F. It is actually up in the air whether hiests will ever be released at all.
I was not supposed to share this info but I figure our forum is small time enough it wont matter. I found it quite dissapointing to hear.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 7, 2014 15:16:26 GMT
Not good news Luap.
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Post by Mo-seph on Aug 7, 2014 15:44:50 GMT
Dick <---- Kicked....
if true its a pisstake that shareholders were able to push devs into releasing a not fit for purpose product, shame really but thats the nature of business.
no doubt VI will be at least 5 years away, maybe more if they are working on a whole new engine for it.
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Post by Davexen on Aug 7, 2014 16:20:07 GMT
Well if all that's true that puts GTAO in quite a different perspective. Doesn't seem very ambitious. I find the thing about GTAO running for just one year on next gen hard to believe yet it fits with the unfinished game we all know it is.
I was hoping GTAO on PS4/Xbox1/PC would be a clean slate, a chance to start anew. Instead it seems like it might be GTAO's swan song. Well, we'll see. I do think (or hope) it's all a little less depressing than you make it out to be.
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Post by coach_wargo on Aug 7, 2014 16:20:27 GMT
If this is true it really sucks. They will lose a ton of their credibility if it comes out that they've been stringing us along this whole time. That's the kind of action that can kill a brand. I took a look at Take-Two's financial report, ir.take2games.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=86428&p=irol-reportsAnnual . Here's a short summary (highlights are mine): T2 stock is perfoming on par with the NASDAQ as a whole and is performing ahead of their peer group. In fact it's doing so well that they bought back 7.5 million shares. Here's something for the PC gamers who complain that R* doesn't release their stuff to PC fast enough: I'm not sure what more the shareholders could want. |
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Post by LuapYllier on Aug 7, 2014 16:28:00 GMT
I think it is the post March performance that is lacking. Looking at the new fiscal year you dont have any of that good performance to look at...all you see is income from cash cards...which must be lower than forcasted. As my source put it, they didthe same with Max Payne, the moment that it ceases to exceed projections they will begin to shut it down. Once it is on PC it will continue to have a life beyond dev support as the modders take it on and the consoles will continue to have a presence through servers but the heavy investment into updates will be shifted to red dead.
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Post by coach_wargo on Aug 7, 2014 16:31:50 GMT
That's an interesting point about how MP3 got treated. I purchased the R* pass to get all of the DLC and felt ripped off, particularly by how quickly after that things went to shit. I vowed to never again pay for DLC in advance.
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Post by LuapYllier on Aug 7, 2014 16:37:05 GMT
Unfortunately with this company being the top dog in the industry it changes the outlook and the reasons behind everything they do. When small and growing it is all about the growth and growth comes from pleasing customers. Once on top it is the investors that run the show. It truely is all about the money. Once you go public you work for the investors. They can break you at any moment.
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Post by Mo-seph on Aug 7, 2014 16:39:23 GMT
I think it is the post March performance that is lacking. Looking at the new fiscal year you dont have any of that good performance to look at...all you see is income from cash cards...which must be lower than forcasted. As my source put it, they didthe same with Max Payne, the moment that it ceases to exceed projections they will begin to shut it down. Once it is on PC it will continue to have a life beyond dev support as the modders take it on and the consoles will continue to have a presence through servers but the heavy investment into updates will be shifted to red dead. youve gotta wonder what the shareholders expected though... year 1 has the insital game release, the huge sales for a physical product.. with something as highly anticipated as GTAV you expect a much bigger spike in intial sales and less post release sales than a less hyper title that may have a smaller release spike, and higher long term sales/resale... naturally year 2 is reliant on in game purchase (i.e cashcards) which arent gonna perform anywhere near as well as the inital physical game sales/revenue this is what bugs me about public listed companies... theres is a massive shift in priorities... like coach hs rightly said if they damage the brand thats irrepairable, and in the long term a bad rep will lose far more revenue than if they had just waited on the release until the game was ready... for me they could have happily taken another 3 months to release GTAV and released it in time for Xmas, instead of trying to rush it out becuase other titles had releases planned (and because release had already been pushed back because of speculating the date it would be ready before it had been fully tested...) |
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Post by LuapYllier on Aug 7, 2014 16:46:38 GMT
He said they originally wanted another year...shareholders said it had to be that year. Take two demanded a date. Rockstar provided but then ran into some issues and delays due to having to patch up holes caused by cutting what they had completed of hiests out, they told T2 they needed 6 months and T2 said they already anounced at E3...make it happen.
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Post by LuapYllier on Aug 7, 2014 16:50:27 GMT
So the worst part is that the one group that actually wanted to do it right will be the one loosing reputation and eventually their jobs...while the people who pressured a faulty release sell shares become millionaires and move on to other investments.
My personal opinion is that the whole publicly traded company thing is killing capitalism.
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Post by SPEEDSTER0595 on Aug 7, 2014 18:13:27 GMT
So the worst part is that the one group that actually wanted to do it right will be the one loosing reputation and eventually their jobs...while the people who pressured a faulty release sell shares become millionaires and move on to other investments. My personal opinion is that the whole publicly traded company thing is killing capitalism. I dont think its killing capitalism, its just not operated in the right way, Capitalism isnt dead, but it isnt fully healthy. The idea behind a PTC was for companies to create revolutionary products and services for consumers, with other peoples money, thus increasing profits hence the title capitalism. T2 has created a revolutionary product - GTA V, more so GTA:O with shareholder dollars. It has made a profit, $1 billion in sales, enough to cover the shareholders dividends and put some in the T2 bank. Now the problem is that R*/T2 has only three main income streams this year -GTA V sales -Cash Card sales -GTA V next gen sales Two of those, I would assume bring in <$10 million this fiscal year The last one is iffy as not many people own next gen consoles and PC users are bound to illegally download it. Bringing the total revenue this fiscal year minus the Billion dollars in sales, would be around $25 million dollars, a huge drop off from their billion dollar days. Hence the pressure on the developers. But its ultimately the developers fault, I would say if R* had released heists in October, DNS servers, money glitches and the lot would not have existed, due to the fact heists would have paid out a reasonable amount. But since it was rushed by shareholders who demanded money or death, all R* had to due was keep up with demand, the community wants weekly updates with new content? give them weekly updates! mission creator? give them mission creators! All the R* devs had to do was keep fans happy, keep the game going, small weekly updates wouldve been better than monthly ones and time sensitive ones. TL;DR Keep gamer happy, get money money, |
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Post by coach_wargo on Aug 7, 2014 18:17:09 GMT
I wonder if T2 has been buying back shares in order to take back some of the control over their business? The more stock they own the less outside investors can dictate things.
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Post by SPEEDSTER0595 on Aug 30, 2014 1:10:06 GMT
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Post by coach_wargo on Sept 2, 2014 16:24:59 GMT
Depend on the level of independence that R* would have under Activision it could be either good or disasterous. If R* was forced into a COD life cycle for their properties then it would be terrible. If they were aloud to maintain their current focus on quality over quantity then being under the Activision banner probably wouldn't make much of a difference to us players.
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Post by SPEEDSTER0595 on Sept 2, 2014 16:50:02 GMT
The COD life cycle is terrible for GTA, though having Bungie, Blizzard and Rockstar under one roof may bring out some amazing games and improvements across the video game segment.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 2, 2014 19:00:27 GMT
I can only say I hope for the best. I haven't paid much attention to national stocks or the money behind the games I play, but I'm starting to think I should because it's clear how much it affects us.
As far as the news goes I can't say I didn't expect a story similar to that and though it is pretty shitty to have cases like this get in the way of a great game. But knowing all this it still does say something about GTA... I mean, even after these flaws and faults and from me knowing that the project was kind of half baked; it still came out as my favorite game I currently own.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 3, 2014 8:00:36 GMT
I can only say I hope for the best. I haven't paid much attention to national stocks or the money behind the games I play, but I'm starting to think I should because it's clear how much it affects us. As far as the news goes I can't say I didn't expect a story similar to that and though it is pretty shitty to have cases like this get in the way of a great game. But knowing all this it still does say something about GTA... I mean, even after these flaws and faults and from me knowing that the project was kind of half baked; it still came out as my favorite game I currently own. That's like saying you would be pleased with Beethoven being born today as a half-baked dubstep artist instead... GTA had such great potential, and the spoiled it... Now it's up to indy-developers out there to fill the void and make the game GTA O could've become... |
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Post by LuapYllier on Sept 12, 2014 16:48:51 GMT
New info,
The artwork for VI characters is currently being worked on. Think Asians.
VI, VII and VIII will all be incorporated into the Online being released in Nov. Xbone, PS3 and PC Online versions will be THE online game for the entirety of the lifespan of those platforms. Current characters will be able to get on a plane and travel to the other game locations.
I was not supposed to spread this so keep it to ourselves.
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Post by Davexen on Sept 12, 2014 16:58:31 GMT
Awwww yeah. That sounds amazing. <3
Does sound a lot more optimistic than your first post in this thread Luap. Had anything changed at R*, you think?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 12, 2014 17:02:29 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Sept 12, 2014 17:16:51 GMT
I was not supposed to spread this so keep it to ourselves. I'm guessing you don't know how internet works, correct? (i'm not saying i'm going to talk about it with other people btw lol) |
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Post by SPEEDSTER0595 on Sept 12, 2014 17:19:14 GMT
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Post by SPEEDSTER0595 on Sept 12, 2014 17:21:05 GMT
New info, The artwork for VI characters is currently being worked on. Think Asians. VI, VII and VIII will all be incorporated into the Online being released in Nov. Xbone, PS3 and PC Online versions will be THE online game for the entirety of the lifespan of those platforms. Current characters will be able to get on a plane and travel to the other game locations. I was not supposed to spread this so keep it to ourselves. Asians? Yakuza? Triads? Sounds awesome! I had a theory on GTAF a while back about boarding planes to new destinations lol, cant wait for it, thanks for the info Luap:) |
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