Like we all know GTA 3 released in 2001 was the big break-through for the Grand Feft Auto series, selling 12 million copies. It was followed only one year later by the first expansion called GTA: Vice City in 2002 and three years later by the second, GTA: San Andreas in 2004, selling 14 mill and 18 mill respectively on the PS2 alone.
All these three games were made with the same engine but they took place in different cities. The total sales of these three games was 48 million copies if we include sales of Xbox versions. Notice that the two expansions, or sequels if you will, alone sold an amazing 35 million copies!

Now let's look at this gen's GTA. GTA 4 came out in 2008 and has sold over 14 million copies on the PS3 and 360. Not bad. GTA4 was followed 10 months later by the expansion GTA: Lost and damned in early 2009 and another 8 months later by Ballad of Gay Tony in Oct 2009. They were both made with the GTA4 engine, but they took place in the same city (perhaps with some new city blocks? I forgot). These two DLC expansions were later put together into a retail game called GTA: Episodes From Liberty City.

We don't know what they sold on DLC but the retail combo package has only sold 1.9 million so far on PS360. I can only speculate as the numbers aren't official, but I can't imagine that the DLC's sold more than a couple of million copies each. So total sales for two GTA4 expansions was probably not much more than 5 million, maybe 6 million? - compared to last gens 35 million! Also bear in mind that the DLCs cost like $20, much less than a full game like GTA3's expansions.

Why did Rockstar choose this route? Even including the rumoured moneyhat of $50 or $75 million from Microsoft for the timed exclusive deal (which equals the revenue you get from sales of about 2-3 million copies of a full priced game), the money Rockstar made from GTA4's expansions is peanuts compared to GTA3's expansions.

They were cheap and quick to make.  I doubt the whole development team was working on them.  I guess the real question would be if the situation would have been the same without Microsoft giving the incentive to make them.

They probably expected a little more out of the episodes, but I'm sure we'll get another retail GTA, so the episodes aren't really equivalent to Vice City/San Andreas.

Not to mention pc sales aswell.

But I think the approach was taken simply to reduce costs. Revenue may have been lower but so was the cost of development for the two expansions. I mean gta4 cost 100 million to make I believe. Considering the financial troubles that Take two has been in, the money probably simply wasn't there.

Since when are Vice City and San Andreas expansions? I really don't think it's fair to call them that.

It's fairly clear that since GTA 4 launch, a majority of Rockstar North has been working on Agent. Development time is probably much longer this gen than it was last gen as well.

San Andreas and Vice city were not expansions.

Slimebeast....

Vice City & San Andreas WERE NOT Expansions ROFLMAO.........they had different city's, a bigger scale, different stories, they were set in a different time, BOTH RETAILED FOR FULL PRICE.

And yeah in one interview the GTA dev said "The GTA4 episodic content will be like GTA:VC was to GTA3"

Well that was hype BS.

_________

So I don't know what to think of GTA4 sales this gen, they are excellent, but how excellent I don't know, its done better than Vice City but not as good as San Andreas.....GTA5's sales will tell us

It's very easy to understand why we haven't seen a Vice City like release from Rockstar. The amount of work creating a living, breathing city like Liberty City of GTA IV is many times that of creating Vice City or even San Andreas. The amount of detail in Liberty City is astounding, and that is the reason the developement team needed to be so huge and it took so long to make GTA IV. The voicework alone is many times bigger. So they really couldn't create a new city just like that. It would take a developement team of a hundred people several years to create. Making episodic content set in the same city is just so much easier.

And people, your picking on Slimebeast for the use of the word expansion is childish at best.

If they weren't expansions then why weren't they (Vice City and San Andreas) labeled as GTA 4 and GT 5?

Yes they're expansions, kind of.

• GTA III
   - GTA: Vice city
   - GTA: San Andreas
• GTA IV
   - GTA IV: The Lost and Damned *
   - GTA: The Ballad of Gay Tony

You get the picture?

(*Yes, The Lost and Damned is preceded by the number GTA IV, while Gay Tony is not.)

But we won't. The next rumoured Rockstar game is GTA 5, not expansions to GTA 4.

Interesting. So basically, the GTA4 expansions being so "small", is a symptom of the ever rising costs of video game development, especially in the HD gen?