http://gamer.blorge.com/2009/12/18/take-two-explains-poor-grand-theft-auto-iv-dlc-and-retail-sales/

The software sales for the DLC expansions to Grand Theft Auto IV have not been up to expectations. This lead to a series of questioning at a Take-Two investor call where the company’s boss was drilled as to why this happened, despite fantastic claims made in the past.

According to Joystiq, during a Take-Two investor call questions were raised as to why the performance of GTA IV’s DLC and retail bundle performed poorly. I wrote a story in reference to the lackluster sales of the GTA IV DLCs not that long ago. The two DLCs were sold at retail, and managed to move a measly 160k over two months. It is not clear how well the DLCs sold via XBL, but the investor call indicates those sales weren’t that stellar either.

Strauss Zelnick chairman of Take-Two stepped up on the call to offer an explanation as to the poor performance of the DLCs and retail offering. According to Zelnick the release timings of the DLC and retail copy contributed to the lackluster sales.

Zelnick stated, “both we and Microsoft believed there was a big market for GTA 4 episodic content and some factors affected their performance.” He continued by saying, “both were released significantly after the launch of the core unit.” The Lost and Damned came out 10 months after GTA IV’s release, and The Ballad of Gay Tony came out recently, about 18 months after release.

Joystiq does bring up an interesting point by quoting things said at the Microsoft press conference in 2006, where Take-Two and Peter Moore made some bold statements.

Calling the two companies’ relationship "a historic, strategic partnership" – remember this? – and calling the episodes themselves "profitable contributors to the company" – Joystiq 

I have to agree with Peter Moore, $50 million for two DLCs is indeed a “historic” partnership between Microsoft and Take-Two. I’m sure it will go down into the history books along with the PS3’s launch price and the RRoD.

It does seem like Rockstar took too long to release the DLC.

I wonder what this will mean for the possible appearance of the DLC on the PS3. Does it make it more likely or less likely?

Your game sucks (compared to previous iterations) and no one wants more of it! Make a good game and you would see these kinds of expansions fly off the shelf.

Considering the disc version is going to easily break a million, I'm calling BS on this right now.

Over 1 million downloaded TLAD, that figure was expected to rise to 2 million before 09 even started. The retail copy has sold nearly 1 million ..

I don't see poor sales!

Exactly, what did the main game sell on the 360 originally anyway? 6 or 7 million? If it hits half that, that'll be EXTREMELY impressive for DLC. Anyone expecting it to put up the same numbers is a certified idiot. Nevermind that these people seem to be thinking "hey, those download numbers aren't very impressive! and hey the disk sales aren't impressive either!" Instead of viewing them both together as one full package (disc and downloads) they only seem to be caring about how each is doing individually, which makes no sense at all because they're the same content at the same price.

GTAIV is like 7.4 mill. LCS will break 1.5 and maybe 2 mill lifetime. I imagin the people that bought TLAD over XBL will have bought Gay Tony that way as well. So around 3.5/4 mill for DLC is brilliant. Nearly 50%

They're poor? First I've heard about it...

Poor?
I remember discussing about how the "Lost" DLC had sold 1mil BEFORE the summer.
And then came the second DLC (with greater reviews - another million maybe?).
And the retail pack is steadily going for the million mark. In UK it is constantly above Uncharted 2.
Calling this poor sales, I really think is dazed way of thinking...