Comments on: GDC: Rockstar should have had more ‘realistic expectations’ for The Lost and Damned, says Pachter

By: ShakaCarnage

ShakaCarnage — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 22:35:34 +0000

I might add at this point that since the launch of NXE, sell-through on DLC has risen by over 50%, due to increased presence and game-specific shop-front style placement.

GTA IV doesn’t have as much exposure now, but content is so much easier to find.

At my latest guesstimate, Xbox 360 has, or will very soon sell through 30m units worldwide, and MS will announce 20m concurrent Live subscribers at E3. . I could be wrong, but if I was a betting man….

By: Whizzo

Whizzo — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 18:40:58 +0000

TLAD was almost too cheap, you get a lot for the cash and it’s worth every point.

By: SplatteredHouse

SplatteredHouse — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 18:38:37 +0000

I think there being an article tag of “Patcher” remain great for epic lols! http://www.vg247.com/?s=Patcher

In fact, I originally thought you had all misspelled his name on purpose.

By: SERAPHEMZ

SERAPHEMZ — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 18:32:29 +0000

my comment was directed towards deftangel, who stated that in his opinion it would sell more it its was in a “weekly promotion”

By: Blerk

Blerk — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 18:16:56 +0000

Wait, people bitched about the price of TLAD? Surely it’s one of the best-value chunks of DLC out there for what you get?

By: SERAPHEMZ

SERAPHEMZ — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:33:00 +0000

Just like everything else now a days, its not really about the quality, its about the price.

By: deftangel

deftangel — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:29:50 +0000

In the early days of the 360 Microsoft were quoting figures of approximately 60% of 360 owners were signed into Live and 80% of them had downloaded something. This held up for the first couple of years, longer than most thought it would.

These days, on one hand you’ve got increasing sales of the Arcade model to more casual consumers, who might be less likely to go online with their consoles. On the other hand, broadband is becoming more and more ubiquitous. Not having built in wireless can’t help mind.

I’d say Pachter’s original conjecture of 1m – 2m from an addressable market of about 3m wasn’t far off. What he might be forgetting is the long tail effect. It’s not about the day 1 numbers anymore. I will buy Lost & Damned but I haven’t yet. If Microsoft stick it in one of those weekly promotions it’ll shift a hell of a lot more.

By: wz

wz — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:20:21 +0000

Dollarlol! All your bailout money won’t buy you a sixpack of beer here in Europe.

By: SERAPHEMZ

SERAPHEMZ — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:18:14 +0000

Shatner – how much is that in dollars?

By: Shatner

Shatner — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:08:14 +0000

SERAPHEMZ, give me £50 and I’ll tell you.

Pat, it’s clean on this page but it’s all over the place in other articles where he or his evil twin are mentioned. Easy mistake to make, but a mistake nonetheless. Journalists mis-spelling the name of their subjects never looks good.

By: Patrick Garratt

Patrick Garratt — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:05:40 +0000

*scours*

By: Audio Radar

Audio Radar — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:05:28 +0000

But which is the real one? And which is his Tyler Durden?

By: SERAPHEMZ

SERAPHEMZ — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:05:01 +0000

I didnt even notice that it was shatner….
whathappenedtotheoldshatnerlol ????

By: Shatner

Shatner — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:04:21 +0000

Pat, add it to your spell-check dictionary because I’ve spotted it dozens and dozens of times.

By: Patrick Garratt

Patrick Garratt — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:01:56 +0000

God. I’ve changed it.

By: epic_wanderer

epic_wanderer — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:00:09 +0000

I can’t understand people bitching about the price tag when compared against the full game, the other content on live and the DLC itself.

By: theevilaires

theevilaires — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:57:56 +0000

lol be nice shatner people make mistakes

By: Madgame

Madgame — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:56:44 +0000

Just a guess but I’d imagine the $20 price tag didn’t go over too well with alot of gamers either.

By: Psychotext

Psychotext — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:51:38 +0000

Damn… we’ve been had!

By: Shatner

Shatner — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:50:13 +0000

You’re all missing the obvious source of the disparity in statements:

Pachter has an evil twin called Patcher.

By: theevilaires

theevilaires — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:48:40 +0000

just be patient and we’ll see how things unfold at E3. I have a feeling Sony will strike hard after what happened last year. I wonder what kind of bonuses Rockstar got last year…

By: Psychotext

Psychotext — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:44:13 +0000

Wait… wasn’t he the one just recently that said it’s sold a load and will go on to sell a load more?

Edit – Yeah:
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3173150

He says 1m sold and 2m by October… sounds to me like he was the one with unrealistic expectations.

By: SERAPHEMZ

SERAPHEMZ — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:42:47 +0000

If it were good news, knowing Microsoft and Greenturd, they would have rubbed it in everyones noses. But as it stands, they just say that its the best selling XBL game, and would beat a regular games sales but decide to hold back on the numbers.

Doesnt make sense to me.

By: G1GAHURTZ

G1GAHURTZ — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:39:25 +0000

I thought that MS had a policy of never releasing figures for sales on Live??

They certainly don’t for Major Nelson’s ‘Most played game’ thingy…

Am I wrong?

By: Blerk

Blerk — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:30:33 +0000

And didn’t we determine the other week that over half of the 360 user base were hooked up? Which would still equate to many millions of sales if everybody who bought a 360 copy of GTA IV also bought the DLC.

It is odd that they haven’t released the figures, though. I presumed they were waiting to hit a particular target, but that seems less likely the more time passes.

By: ShakaCarnage

ShakaCarnage — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:30:10 +0000

17m concurrent users of Xbox Live. I’d say around 20% of those would have GTA IV.

If only I could get paid to guess shit all the time like he does.

By: G1GAHURTZ

G1GAHURTZ — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:24:05 +0000

“Pachter opined that the Live attach rates is one of the reasons The Lost and Damned hadn’t hit the intended mark.

“The main reason is because not too many Xbox 360 owners are hooked up to Xbox Live,” he said.”

Strange comment, considering his apparent belief that consoles are going to become obsolete largely due to an online only gaming service.