Microsoft pays 50 million dollars for GTA Exclusive Content

[JSF]

I doubt these episodes will sell in stores. Microsoft wants 360 owners to go online. Once you go online, several things occur for them:

1. If you are a modder, your console will be perma-banned instantly.
2. You will have to buy Live points. Once you convert your cash into points, it's like with chips at a casino, you lose some sense of what you are spending. That's why the conversion of points to dollars is so convoluted. You can't easily convert the numbers into the actual price. Once you buy one thing using online, that psychological barrier is broken, and chances are you will buy more and more. There will also be points that go unused, just like stores love the gift certificate game because many go unused. This is free money for Microsoft.
3. The more you download, the more hard disk you fill. The more hard disk you fill, the bigger the hard disk you need. That's where Microsoft's $100 20GB and $180 120GB hard disks come in.  Especially if you are a Core gamer, this is already something you will have to buy before you can even buy any one of these two episodes.
4. Profit margins are better with fewer middlemen. Not having to manufacture discs and sell in retail stores cuts out a lot of middlemen.

These are all advantages Microsoft would give up by selling the episodes through traditional retail, which is why I doubt they would do it - at least for one or two years.