Tag Archives: the ballard of gay tony

GTA IV may be simply too large to succesfully carry DLC, Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter’s told VG247, as the majority of owners never actually finish the main game.

Pachter was talking in response to comments made earlier by AmTech analyst Ben Schachter (via Industrygamers and Joystiq), who expressed “concern” about the state of the GTA franchise in general thanks to The Lost and Damned, Gay Tony and other related games failing to match expectation.

“Ben’s right that the DLC disappointed, but I suspect that the reason is that GTA games are so massive that a substantial majority of the GTA audience hasn’t finished the core game, so they don’t feel especially compelled to buy the DLC,” Pachter said.

“GTA IV was at least a 50 hour game (for me, probably more like 100 hours), in contrast to the typical Call of Duty, which is a 6-10 hour game. Almost anyone who bought CoD finished it, and if they liked it (that’s a high percentage), they were interested in DLC. On the other hand, my guess is that fewer than 20% of GTA owners finished the game (100% of VG247 readers, of course), so fewer were interested in DLC.

“I think that is a fair assessment, and don’t think that the slow pace of DLC sales reflects poor performance for the franchise.”

They’re watching, kids. And they know you’re hardcore. No further GTA games are public at this point.

Nelson’s confirmed the release of GTA IV DLC The Ballad of Gay Tony. It’s your for 1,600 MSP.

The first reviews went live last night. Get them here.

Blurb, should you need it:

The Ballad of Gay Tony injects Liberty City with an overdose of guns, glitz, and grime. As Luis Lopez, part-time hoodlum and full-time assistant to legendary nightclub impresario Tony Prince (a.k.a. “Gay Tony”), players will struggle with the competing loyalties of family and friends, and with the uncertainty about who is real and who is fake in a world in which everyone has a price.

Get dancing, kiddlewinks.

Rockstar’s Dan Houser reckons GTA IV’s DLC episodes have to come to discs because digital distribution for larger items just isn’t there yet.

“I know, as a consumer, I’m more comfortable buying songs, which are almost like playing a jukebox, than I am buying movies as purely digital items,” Houser told USA Today.

“We all feel that way, so we can surely get more people to experience it if we put it on a disc.”

However you end up consuming Gay Tony, it looks as though it’s going to be awesome. Houser expanded on the plot.

“Luis has to do some of these favors and see if he can get them out of debt,” he added.

“The situation with Tony’s drug problems gets worse and worse, and Tony gets more and more out of control.”

Sounds fun. The episode’s first movie was released tonight. It’s awesome. The content releases on October 29.

Microsoft’s confirmed that the second piece of 360-exclsive GTA IV DLC, The Ballard of Gay Tony, will release on October 29.

As previously announced, the content will be priced 1,600MSP.

Both Gay Tony and The Lost and Damned will also be released this autumn on DVD at $39.99: you won’t need the original GTA IV to play it.

Thanks, Edge.

Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter’s estimated that GTA 360 DLC The Ballad of Gay Tony will sell around 3 million units, with the PSP version of Chinatown Wars settling in the 1 million unit region.

“Both GTA games will do well, but only Gay Tony this year (fiscal year ends October 31),” he told VG247.

“I think both will do well, Gay Tony 2 – 3 mm units (1mm downloads and the rest discs), and Chinatown Wars at least 1mm.”

Pachter described last night’s decision to delay BioShock 2 into FY2010 as “pretty big”.

“They lowered guidance by $0.80 – 0.90, so that pretty much sums up the impact,” he said.

Gay Tony releases for 360 this autumn.

Rockstar just confirmed the second piece of GTA IV DLC is called The Ballad of Gay Tony.

The company also said today that both pieces of DLC, the new episode and The Lost and Damned, are going to be made available on disc. The DVD will cost $39.99 and will be a standalone product: you won’t need GTA IV to play it.

Gay Tony hits this fall, priced 1600 MS Points.

Press release after the break.

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