Exclusive GTA IV Content for PS3 Too

One of Microsoft's happy announcements at this year's E3 was exclusive content for Grand Theft Auto IV on the Xbox 360. Eurogamer is now reporting that the PS3 will get its own exclusive content for Rockstar's next chapter in the GTA series. From the article: "How many additional areas or episodes Rockstar is planning is anyone's guess at this juncture, but it seems the game is at least being structured to accommodate a number of expansive new content releases in the weeks and months after release, while also satisfying platform holder - and console owner - demand for exclusive material. Though with 'exclusive' being a somewhat elastic term these days, especially where Grand Theft Auto is concerned, we wouldn't be remotely surprised if you end up playing 'exclusive' 360 episodes on your PS3, and vice versa. One thing's for sure - there's nothing more certain to piss off the fanboys than a level playing field. "

A level playing field?

[Turn-X Alphonse]

Since when have we ever had a level playing field? Every console has it's ups and it's down (from graphics to joypad config). Each one is rather unique in this way. So you will never find two consoles on a truely level playing field.

Who would be angry?

[SuperKendall]

It only makes sense that with all of the consoles offer online downloads of game content, any cross platform game is going to eventually have all content on all platforms. After all, they loose money not doing so and frankly I think gamers would be more pissed to see content withheld for no reason. Would anyone really be happy if the new Obvlivion quest were only for the PS3 instead of being made availiable to all platforms?

Gamers should rejoice that at last we are seeing the end of exclusive game content for different platforms, it was just rediculous to do this.

"Fanboys" will still have plenty of other things to fight about, like Halo vs. whatever. Meanwhile us gamers can enjoy games to a fuller extent.

Re:You'd think that Rockstar learned their lesson.

[Enderandrew]

Honestly, I don't see that having sex in a game (while clothed no doubt) is a first, or pushing a huge boundary. The Leisure Suit Larry games featured sex as the main premise in the game.

And it saddens me to think that having sex is worse than killing a cop in this society.

The Hot Coffee thing was a media creation. They missed the boat initially on going after Rockstar. People have targeted violent video games for ages. This just gave them a new excuse, but the actual backlash that occurred was far from warranted.

This news is far from surprising. Rockstar has been Sony-first in the past. The second they announced exclusive content for one console, I figured it would come on the PS3 and possibly Wii as well. Unfortunately with what they are talking about with GTAIV, I'm not sure the Wii hardware will handle it.

Rockstar makes money for every copy sold. If they can double their sales by getting people to buy two copies with minimal effort (making a small ammount of content exclusive for each console) then it would be silly not to do this.

You also have to realize that GTA:SA purportedly had a budget of 80-90 million dollars to make. Figure it the recall, possible lawsuits, etc. that each GTA game while in the past a success, can be a huge risk in the future. If they are spending 80 million dollars or more on the next title, they have to do everything in their power to maximize profit potential on that investment.

It doesn't take long for a publisher or developer to go under in this day and age.

Exclusive bullshit

[Psykechan]

It used to be that if you wanted to play any game you merely had to purchase every console. Yes, it was expensive but we did it for the exclusive games that were only available on a single system.

Now they are trying to make it so that if you want to play every bit of a cross platform game you have to buy multiple copies? Screw that. When Soul Calibur II came out with exclusive characters on each system, I responded by not buying the damn game. Here it looks like Rockstar is trying to generate artificial demand for downloadable content; something else designed to extract money from gamers.

Yea, yea, feed me the line about games costing so much money to produce now. I don't care. Movies cost several million dollars to produce and you can buy the DVD for a single Andrew Jackson. Gamers are being charged three times that much for something that only cost a fraction of the price. Yes I understand that there are other factors here... I'm not that dense, it's just that they don't need to nickel-and-dime us afterwards.

I'm tired of companies raising prices [gametrailers.com] and then charging more for the "privelidge" of playing online [xbox.com]. I'm tired of companies cramming questionable tech [blu-ray.com] down our throats that only raises cost and causes delays [betanews.com]. I'm tired of games that are strictly service based [worldofwarcraft.com] even though you still have to pay full retail price. I'm tired of companies charging me yet again [wikipedia.org] for games that I already own; I mean I already have two [gamefaqs.com] copies [gamefaqs.com] of Super Mario World, two [gamefaqs.com] copies [gamefaqs.com] of Super Mario 64, and three [gamefaqs.com] fricking [gamefaqs.com] copies [gamefaqs.com] of The Legend of Zelda and for only 23 more dollars, I can play them all on one console. Hooray for shovelware.

Yes I'm ranting. Sorry about that. The whole thing just makes me wonder why I play games anymore. Can I at least get an "amen"?

Re:I'd be pissed off...

[nxtw]

Played San Andreas? On the PS2, aiming was a simple click of R1 and then fire. Nice and easy.

Re:I'd be pissed off...

[Dev59]

It's easy to lock on and fire, but it's not so easy to lock on to exactly whom you want to shoot. The over the shoulder camera combined with mouse-aiming does make the combat much more enjoyable on the PC... but the game is just better suited to a console. Something about the driving and the running around just makes the game more enjoyable with a game pad while sitting on the couch.