I agree with you here, but I do understand a hypothetical argument.

Ways that Home could enhance GTA are as follows:

1) Teams can meet in the home universe and plan attacks and routes for the online aspects of GTA like cops and crooks.

-Within home there would be a table or 3d map of Liberty city (a little like a risk board) and you could place little statues and other strategic emblems on the 3D map to plan out your online team game better.

2) In addition to this, Anyone can do anything in home. So the IGN Sony team could hold a meeting somewhere in the Home world (in the public square) and anyone who would want to play against them could meet them there. They would also be there answering questions and recording podcasts live (they have already said they will do this on the most recent Podcast Beyond.)... And this sounds very cool.

3) Then the most obvious addition of home being that eventually there will be trophies and awards that coordinate to GTA, which can be displayed in your home space.

4) Eventually there could be the massive collaboration of leader boards, clan meeting spaces, a GTA fan lounge, streaming videos of amazing GTA moments.... anything, and almost all of it can be user created or initiated.

All types of things , that over time could become great. The possibilities are endless.

Who knows if it ever will come to fruition..... But it could. 

From watching bill gates i believe ms is bill's attempt to be cool and buy everyone to be his friend.  Poor nerd.

It's funny to see so many people in one topi saying MS wasted $50 million. I mean, even I'll admit they overpaid for what they are getting (because I assume they don't get 100% of the DLC revenues, just 100% exclusivity), but they are still getting a lot more out of it than the dollars spent on the DLC. For every 360 that sells based on exclusive GTA4 content MS (in the long run) makes a ton of money. The $50 million IS advertising (to those who say they'd have been better off putting their money there) and shows long-term returns even beyond the life of the 360 (assming a future MS console), but it's still a hard cost to swallow when they could have made two entire AAA games from scratch for about the same amount.

It's difficult to understand why Microsoft haven't openly come out and stated exactly what the exclusive content they've spent 50 million on is.

It could be a deciding factor for a lot of gamers, but now, with GTAIV only 2 weeks away from launch very few informed gamers even know what the exclusive content is, let alone the casuals, who are, by all accounts, oblivious to the fact the 360 version is even offering any extra content.

I could be mistaken, but that 50 million may have been the biggest waste of money in the gaming industry for a long time.

I think the 50 million was a little over priced but a lot of people will be moving from the last gen to this gen because of this game and you know m$ will spend a s*** load of money to tell people that they have a better copy of gta 4. Plus they will make that 50 million selling the extra content.

 Well its clear that MS has a big problem with the way they are dealing with GTA IV.

From the clients i have in my store, almost nobody knows about the DLC and a lot still think its a PS3 exclusive, its so bad for MS in my shop that i have 10 PS3 reservations for 1 X360.  And yet i'm probably the only one in town to warn people about the fact that if they have a PS3 and a X360, its probably a better choice to buy the X360 one. 

 I hope you are right but from what i see in my shop, there is a lot more people thinking that GTAIV is still PS3 exclusive than people who know about the DLC.

I don't see any reason why Microsoft would hold their cards for the 'complete' version of the game. How do you build hype for it coming to one system, by not showing the difference? I'm buying GTAIV for the XBOX 360, only because it's the only console I own, but if I had both PS3 and 360, I would not feel compelled to buy it on one console over the other, due to the simple fact that MS hasn't made it clear what this exclusive episodic content was, and the decision would be purely on what console I want it on...

And I'd hate to bring it back to RRoD, but I would most definitely buy it on the PS3, so that I'm not wasting precious hours until my next RRoD on a game that's fundamentally the same on different consoles, sans yet to be revealed 'exclusive episodic content', that for all we know is Horse Armor, or a new character skin.

well, wait 4 weeks after GTA4 release and then if sales are "bad" for the Xbox360, u can say "MS failed" ...

Also the DLC is a non event cause it is NOT HERE and it is an online purchase that not every GTA4 owners will get.

so what MS has to do ??? PRETTY SIMPLE :

Full GTA4 experience on PS3 : 400$/euros !!
Full GTA4 experience on Xbox360 : 200$/euros !!

==> advertize the PRICE in everyway possible !!!

(oh, they also should drop the price in NA, cause the PS3 is really a better value with BR player)

average GTA fan : damn I will get my PS3 to play GTA4
=> see advertissement : GTA4 on Xbox360 only 199$ !!!!
average GTA fan : why should I pay 400$, if I get the same for only 200$ !!
=> go buy Xbox360 arcade.