Most games look better and run better on the 360. Oblivion, in particular benefited from improved programming techniques and not because the PS3 is faster (it's not). The shader technique, in particular, is possible on the 360 and should be is supposed to be added in an Oblivion patch if it hasn't been already.

Some games, like Assassin's Creed, will benefit from the 360's general purpose processing power advantage and have better AI (this is according to the Assassin's Creed developers). The 360 also has a graphics fill rate advantage and a more flexible memory architecture.

The bottom line is that if I want to play GTA 4 the 360 will be the best platform for it. GTA 4 was the *biggest* exclusive Sony had, bar none, so this is huge news.  Even if many gamers don't discover that the 360 version is superior before they buy it, they will likely find out at some point in the future when GTA fans talk about this stuff or see the bonus episodes on the 360 (especially if they sell in stores also).

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.

I would think that eventually, at some time, the extra episodes might come out as an exclusive re-release just for the 360. Think the GTA Double Pack, or the GOTY edition of Morrowind - both had excellent lives (GTADP for Xbox outsold SA).

Provided that the extra content can actually fit on 1 DVD-ROM. The Shivering Isles download for Oblivion was 1gb.

Yeah, but now they're stuck with 400,000 extra points that they don't know what to do with.

Hell, they don't even know how much 400,000 points are worth. No one does.

50 million basically pays for the development of GTA4. Not the episodes, the whole friggin' game. That's a win for the otherwise struggling Take Two and a waste for MS. They will already get the sales, and 50 mil is a lot to get people onto Live. It might work out fo rthem in the end, but overall they're getting way less than they paid for.

Of course, Sony still needs to fire back somehow, and if they can overcome the price difference then this will matter.

GTA: Vice City sold 13 million on the PS2, GTA: San Andreas sold 12 million on the PS2,  Grand Theft Auto III sold 11 million on the PS2 (found on this list).  That totals 36 million copies, all on the PS2.  For $50 million the next release will also be on the  Xbox 360.  How is this a bad business decision on MS's part?  Are people seriously expecting this game to fail on the Xbox 360 and not sell at all.  I do not think that is very realistic.  According to the NPD numbers this site tracks so very well, Xbox 360 owners buy a lot of software every month and there are already 10-million owners.  I do not see how this game will not sell millions on the Xbox 360.  I am not suggesting that GTA IV will not sell well on the PS3.  It will.  I do think the total sales numbers will be fairly split between the two consoles, and that is what the $50 million purchased. 

Zyzomys - No one is really debating how important GTAIV to 360 is - it's huge. However, the issue is the fact that everyone believes, from the article, that MS just paid $50m for the exclusive content, and not the game itself.

I understand what you are saying. I guess I was not clear enough but I do not think it matters what that $50 million is supposed to pay for. That $50 million could have paid for parking at Epic Games when Peter Moore visits, and it still would be a brilliant business decision. The bottom line is that GTA IV is no longer a PS3 exclusive, and it will sell millions on the Xbox 360.

ok so they payed 50 million to get GTA on 360, seems like a good move, but do they still get this exclusive episodic content?