God I hope not.

It would be a waste of 2.5 bln dollars. The game division is just barely pulling profits for the first time, ever, so that's not smart. Also a good bit of why GTA IV makes so much bank is the install base of the consoles it's on. Had it been exclusive, it'd have *only* sold five or six million units versus ten or eleven as of now.

So that cuts the cost of the franchise in half.

Take 2 would make bank on the sale, but in the long run, it'd be a waste of money as every game would have it's profits cut due to only being out on one console. But Microsoft does need it's own dedicated sports games. I mean, Sony's MLB series is doing very well, and on a smaller userbase, has almost sold as much as 2Ks MLB 2K8 on a 2x bigger (american, where it matters) install base. It's pretty important for MS to tie down exclusivity where it matters, and having exclusive sports franchises that are good help any system.

GTA is a big name, but I feel that a lot of people feel let down after GTA IV. I'm not too certain that I myself will be a purchaser of GTA IV, but if it's anything like GTA IV, I'll pass. I hope if MS does this, they do weigh the options smart either way.

Don't let this happen Sony

didn't EA already give a similar offer.....and Take 2 handily rejected it? Right?

The hate for Microsoft is strong in this one...

I believe EA lowballed them, which caused TTI to reject the offer.

At any rate, I'm mixed if Microsoft does this. I would rather them buy out a *better* developer. TT's portfolio, outside of GTA, and Bioshock isn't that great (however, they do have Fraxis)... $2.5b is a ton of cash just for 1 big franchise, with a lot of smaller ones around it. TTI has very few franchises that hit 1m unit sales, so I wouldn't think it'd be a good move.

But the amount of fanboy tears in this thread is hilarious! Rationale seems to go out the window when your favorite franchise could get bought out!

If I had the money and was in the video game business, I'd do it too. I'm pretty sure SONY also has the money to do the same thing. The thing is....SONY didn't need to because their platforms were hugely successful and the games came to them. Now Sony's newest platform isn't doing as well as THIRD PARTY devs would like to see and that is why we are seeing stuff like FF13 multiplatform, GTA4 multiplatform w/ episodic content for the competitors, GTA for the DS (WHAT??) and now the competitors are now attacking Sony even further because there is nothing Sony can do but try and buy them back or try to keep them at least.

This gen its more like... Microsoft does...Sony copies and does just not as good. So I am denying it. Didn't PS3 version of GTA4 have buggy online freezes?

Even if it is growing, it'll cap far faster than Wii's market - If I had to guess, I'd say the HD market will stop expanding roughly at the 50 million mark, if it even gets that far.

And I'd also like to know what you define as a "mature" game. GTA games are more "teen" than anything else, IMO.