If it's so epic and big, why not announce it.

That WOULD make me buy this version over the other one, provided I had both consoles. That would be full of win.

 I'm going to back this one up. I've had my 360 (which isn't a falcon) since 2006 and it hasn't red-ringed on me. Futhermore the 360 has exclusive content. There is no reasnable way to say the 360 version isn't the seminal version. People that say the DLC wont succeed are deluding themselves. The cod 4 maps have be bought over a million times already. The 360's DLC will sell millions and will make TT a lot of money whilst also reducing costs. Which I hear is something they need to do.

You saying it cant fail is deluding yourself.... also what does a map pack have to do with this DLC... I dont know where you got your numbers from but 10mil is still a little shy of 50mil now isnt it (and thats if 100% of revenue goes to them)

DMeisterJ -

Maybe because the NDA clauses between R* and MS aren't allowing either to talk, until the game has launched, and R* has a slight idea as to what the content can and will be?

If Microsoft advanced R* $50m, when they were in a financially vunerable position, MS can and must secure some sort of very important DLC for the franchise. $50m is the price of Halo 3 + Lost Odyssey. So I'd tend to think that even if it was a "loan" until MS made a certain amount of cash back on the exclusive DLC, it'd still have to be compelling DLC for Microsoft to actually SPEND that kind of cash.

Because lets face it - what kind of content, for ANY game can return a $50m investment? Anyone care to name it?

Lets take a stroll down memory lane concerning X360 DLC achievement milestones:


Shivering Isles - $30.
No ironclad DLC numbers exist, but from my extrapolations, it brought in around 500,000 downloads at best.

Crackdown - $10
The pay-for content Crackdown brought in around 75,000 units within about 2 months of release.

IdolM@ster - Various $$
No actual figures for downloaded pieces, but IdolM@ster was #3 on Microsoft's all time list for DLC profits at $2.8m USD, after 9+ months on the market.

Rock Band - $2 per Song
Harmonix just stated that RB DLC has reached 8m pieces of DLC thus far, between X360 and PS3. Knowing the sales ratios, I would venture to say around 5-6m songs have been downloaded for Rock Band, putting revenue between $5m at the lowest, and $10m at the highest, with the likely sales being closer to the $10m.

Call of Duty 4 Map Pack - $10
1 million downloads in 9 days, bringing XBL to a crashing halt for a few days. Will sell more, but I bet a large percentage of users that want it, got it.




So, the DLC for the 360, in terms of revenue has been:
Shivering Isles ~ $15m USD
Call of Duty 4 ~ $10m USD
Rock Band ~ $8.5m USD
IdolM@ster ~ $2.9m USD
Crackdown ~ $1m USD

And Microsoft plans for the GTAIV DLC to bring $50m. Can anyone guess, under current market conditions, what kind of add-on content this might be? Even the best-downloaded items in history have made 1/4th to 1/5th of what Microsoft's goal would be for GTAIV. So what kind of content will it be? Costly content. Big content. We know that users are willing to pay $10 for maps, and minor addons, and $30 for a full-fledged expansion. So guess which one we'll likely get? $20-$30 add-on DLC that's ultra meaningful, in hopes that MS brings atleast 2m users around to DL it.

Mrstickball - Do those DLC things have 6mil players for the console?

Also they have 2... so I dont think they expect 50mil for the first one

(also DLC could be 20 or maybe 30 dollars)

So 40 - 60 dollars for BOTH DLC's.... they'd only need to sell about 1mil(per content) to make the money back

Damn what the fuck is Microsoft still doing in the gaming business then!

Also... if you think they think they will reach 50% of their users to make back their money you are delusional... or maybe they are setting themselves up for failure.

starcraft if you start one more stupid rumour like this, you should get banned. you just sound like a little fany boy its sad.

Thanks for that valuable insight sailor.

Whether Microsoft will actually make money on the DLC directly isn't that much of an issue I don't think (though I believe they will). What is an issue is how many consoles the DLC sells.

Make no mistake. If this rumour turns out to be anywhere near the truth, the Xbox 360 will shift a LOT of consoles off the strength of GTAIV over the coming year.