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GTAIV: The Lost and Damned sets one-day XBLA sales record

Microsoft declares first 360-exclusive Grand Theft Auto IV add-on has generated more revenue in 24 hours than any other DLC; hard numbers MIA.

Given that Grand Theft Auto IV has sold more than 5.2 million copies in the US alone, there was little question that its first expansion would be a hit. Sure enough, today Microsoft declared that Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned has "eclipsed first-day revenue for all previous downloadable content on Xbox Live." Microsoft also mentioned that the game was the "highest reviewed downloadable content ever from Rockstar Games," although many sites declined to grade it as a full game.

Did Johnny Kleibitz make Microsoft's $25 million back?

Did Johnny Kleibitz make Microsoft's $25 million back?

But while Microsoft was big on bravado in terms of The Lost and Damned's number-one ranking, it was short--very short--on details. The 360-maker did not provide figures for how many units of the $20 expansion have been downloaded, nor did it say if the expansion was the top download domestically, internationally, or both. As of January 31, the 360 edition of GTAIV had sold more than 3.3 million units in the US according to the NPD, offering a massive installed base for the download. However, since it only tracks sales at retail, NPD will not be measuring sales of The Lost and Damned.

However successful the expansion, it will need to sell quite well to recoup the amount Microsoft paid for its exclusivity. In a conference call last June, Take-Two Interactive executives said that the software giant had paid $50 million for two 360-only expansions for the open-world crime game. The second 360-exclusive expansion is due later in the year.

305 Comments

  • brendanhunt1

    Posted May 9, 2009 4:04 pm GMT

    20th august 2009, remember that date

  • PhilipO38

    Posted Mar 11, 2009 1:32 pm GMT

    For $20 for TLAD, you get 22 missions baised on Johnny(from the Lost biker club), 50+ gang wars, 15 procedial missions, 3 more random characters, new bike races, 6 new weapons, a killer bunch of new songs(especially rock, which the original lacked) from Motley Crue, Iron Maiden, Deep Purple and others, a bunch of missions that parallel Niko's storyline(hint: you can even see Niko fight from Johnny's eyes at times), and you get another 4 activities and different buildings are opened up as well. And TLAD is more intense then Niko's story, because it's gang related with an edge to it. In comparision, i'm nearly done with Killzone 2(as you can tell i have both consoles), and for nearly 7 complete levels it has taken only 4 hours on it's normal setting. For TLAD, you get a minimum 15 hours if you rush through it doing the main missions and side missions, and even more with the gang wars. I'll finish off Killzone 2(thankfully i rented it, because like Gears2 it's overrated) in less then 7 hours for sure(maybe even 6hrs), and it's a $60 game. For $20 TLAD is one of the best deals on the market(online or stores) and it makes the original storyline have more depth. MS fully knew the impact of having exclusive DLC's for GTA:IV and Fallout3, and these also sell the more copies of the original as well. Sony has picked it up this winter with R:FOM and Killzone2 and last spring with MGS4 and LBP, but they still are playing catch up to what the 360 has in it's exclusives, both full games and DLC's.

    And don't forget the year the 360 had in 07', with Halo3, Bioshock, HalfLife2(the better version, console wise), Mass Effect..ect

    This was supposed to be a dead period for the 360, and still with exclusives like Gears2, Fable 2, and exclusive DLC's for GTA:IV and Fallout 3, the 360 has more then held it's own.

  • XanderZane

    Posted Mar 4, 2009 7:12 am GMT

    Sony had their chance to get some exclusive content for the PS3, but they passed on it. Now with the huge losses last year, I don't expect Sony to be purchasing many exclusives for 2009 either. They already have exclusives like Uncharted 2, God of War 3, GT5, FF XIII Versus, Infamous and a few others, but I don't see Sony purchase any exclusive DLC or anything like that. Killzone 2 is a good start for them though. Halo: ODST will be Microsoft's big seller this year.

  • StarlightHunter

    Posted Mar 4, 2009 5:24 am GMT

    Arkady_Husky, we all know that sony are just stupid. sony have missed giving their fans a tone of exclusive content for, gta, fo3, tr etc. its alright ps3 fanboys complaining, but they are doing it at the wrong people. have a go at sony.

  • steveroger

    Posted Mar 3, 2009 5:29 pm GMT

    KC_Hokie Posted Mar 2, 2009 1:04 pm MT I was just looking at the top 10 list of the best selling PS2 games and 9/10 were exclusive at one time or another for the PS2....#1 GTA SA was exclusive for over 9 months, #2 Gran Turismo 3, #3 GTA VC was exclusive for a year, #4 GTA III was exclusive for over 2 years, #5 MGS3, #6 FF X, #7 FF XII, #8 Kingdom Hearts, and #9 Dragon Quest VIII (#10 was Madden 2005 which wasn't exclusive). Now the Xbox 360 has exclusivity over the two GTA expansions and the Final Fantasy games are coming out to the 360. Microsoft really did their homework and is doing everything possible to bring the best games to it's system.

    Oh yah. Well, Sony's PS3 could easily get SONIC exclusively.

  • steveroger

    Posted Mar 3, 2009 5:26 pm GMT

    M$ will make tons of money, not by selling the 2 batches of GTA IV content, but by all the new subscribers, 360s, and royalty fees for games sold generated by this deal. Of course, you all knew that.

  • 123outlaw

    Posted Mar 3, 2009 12:51 pm GMT

    am getting a 360 soon anyway so i wont be missing out on any exclusives

  • Lucidmike78

    Posted Mar 3, 2009 12:22 pm GMT

    So many unexplored parts of the original map get their exposure through the DLC. Its great. And there are still many parts of the map that can be used too. If you've ever wondered why Rockstar spent so much effort designing a prison, and they didn't let you in, the DLC takes full advantage of this part of the map. Looking forward to the next DLC.

  • KingNabster

    Posted Mar 3, 2009 8:12 am GMT

    Oh man poor PS3 owners, this ones gotta hurt.

  • blackace

    Posted Mar 3, 2009 12:07 am GMT

    I have to laugh at all the PS3 fanboys who said no one would what to play this DLC because GTA IV would be completely forgotten by the time it got released. lol!! They kept bashing it and saying M$ wasted their money. Someone got owned badly. ********************************************************
    @ZMajor - Microsoft makes money off every regular 360 game sold plus a % off anything sold on Xbox Live. That's why the games cost $60 since Microsoft is still losing money on the sales of the Xbox 360 itself.
    --------------------------------------------------------------------
    Dude, Microsoft makes about 15% off every XBox 360 game sold and they make almost 50% off of the XBLA games. Also, they have been making money off the XBox 360 systems for almost a year and a half now. Where have you been hiding for the past 2 yrs? The only system not making a profit is the PS3.

  • Ton77

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 8:57 pm GMT

    no surprise there..

  • tawagivercetti

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 6:52 pm GMT

    Best twenty bucks I ever spent, The new Bikes are amazing. Can't wait for the next installment.

  • Arkady_Husky

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 2:15 pm GMT

    I don't think Sony elected not to buy the DLC when it was offered to them because they didn't realise GTA IV would be a success (you'd have to be very stupid to do that given the success of the past GTA games), but rather because they resented paying any more money to provide a game for a system which is bleeding them dry. Of course that's just idle speculation on my part, but it's far more logical than the 'Whoa, lots of people are buying the latest GTA game - well I never!' argument.

    Anyway, The Lost and Damned is great and well worth the money in my opinion.

  • KC_Hokie

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 1:55 pm GMT

    @ZMajor - According to Forbes.com, Microsoft makes 11.5% off every game sold ($7 for a $60 game) in stores. Meaning Microsoft has already made over $1.1 million off the sales of GTA IV itself.

  • KC_Hokie

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 1:45 pm GMT

    @brendanhunt1 - I'm sure they get at least percentage like they do on everything else sold on Xbox Live. Maybe they get all $20 since Rockstar has already been paid.

  • brendanhunt1

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 1:40 pm GMT

    im not sure weither microsoft gets a share of the money that the dlc makes

  • KC_Hokie

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 1:36 pm GMT

    @ZMajor - Microsoft makes money off every regular 360 game sold plus a % off anything sold on Xbox Live. That's why the games cost $60 since Microsoft is still losing money on the sales of the Xbox 360 itself.

  • mjbcfc

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 1:22 pm GMT

    @Tr5978

    Yes but once the second DLC comes out that 75% gets halved to 37.5% which is achievable.

    Also the 3.3 million units sold is USA alone, so add Europe, Asia, Australasia to that and the added 360 sales that the exclusive DLC has generated and the $50m MS spent seems to be an extremely wise investment.

  • ZMajor

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 1:16 pm GMT

    "KC_Hokie- You also have to factor in Microsoft makes a % off of each GTA IV copy sold as well. So at the very worst they will break even off the deal directly, but sell more Xbox 360's because of the exclusivity indirectly. And those new owners would obviously buy more games which Microsoft gets a % of. In the long run Microsoft will make money off the deal."

    Wow do u even know how game sales work? Microsoft sony, or nintendo will not get squat for third party publishers on games sales. Even if the exclusives were paid for, Microsoft will not get 1 penny, because microsoft never payed for a share in the profit they payed for the exclusivity Thats it!!.

  • Rusty_m

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 1:12 pm GMT

    Microsoft's reason for spending so much to make this content exclusive extends beyond the profit they make from DLC sales and from encouraging people to but GTA4 for the 360. It will make all 360 games sell more in the long run as the exclusive content will make some choose to buy a 360 instead of a PS3 as most won't buy both. That's what i think anyway

  • KC_Hokie

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 12:13 pm GMT

    @Tr5978 - You also have to factor in Microsoft makes a % off of each GTA IV copy sold as well. So at the very worst they will break even off the deal directly, but sell more Xbox 360's because of the exclusivity indirectly. And those new owners would obviously buy more games which Microsoft gets a % of. In the long run Microsoft will make money off the deal.

  • Tr5978

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 12:05 pm GMT

    Okay, so let's break it down. 3.3 million units of GTAIV have been sold. Microsoft paid 50 million dollars for the exclusive DLC. The second iteration of DLC aside, Lost and Damned (at $20) would need to sell 2.5 million downloads to recoup Microsoft's investment. That means roughly 75% of all people who bought GTAIV would have to buy Lost and Damned for Microsoft to break even.

    Does anyone see that happening?

  • KC_Hokie

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 12:04 pm GMT

    I was just looking at the top 10 list of the best selling PS2 games and 9/10 were exclusive at one time or another for the PS2....#1 GTA SA was exclusive for over 9 months, #2 Gran Turismo 3, #3 GTA VC was exclusive for a year, #4 GTA III was exclusive for over 2 years, #5 MGS3, #6 FF X, #7 FF XII, #8 Kingdom Hearts, and #9 Dragon Quest VIII (#10 was Madden 2005 which wasn't exclusive). Now the Xbox 360 has exclusivity over the two GTA expansions and the Final Fantasy games are coming out to the 360. Microsoft really did their homework and is doing everything possible to bring the best games to it's system.

  • vision2020

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 11:49 am GMT

    The lost and damned f**king rocks!!!!! best DLC ever!!!!! worth the 20 bucks. Everyone needs to go get a 360 and play this s**t awesome!!!!

  • KC_Hokie

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 11:39 am GMT

    @MajinDante- phaseillini is correct as GTA 3 was the #1 selling game in 2001 and the #2 selling game in 2002. GTA Vice City was the best selling game of 2002. Sony having those two games exclusive for two years really helped carry the PS2.

  • MajinDante

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 11:13 am GMT

    "GTA 3 was a game that carried the PS2."


    wrong.

  • phase4illini

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 10:42 am GMT

    Vision... you're kidding yourself if Sony didn't think that Rockstar would deliver a worthwhile game, particularly considering the fact that the original GTA 3 was a game that carried the PS2.

    Since the beginning of the PS3 lifeline, for better or worse, Sony has officially said that they would not pay for exclusivity rights. That's because if a dev is not a first-party in-house studio, IPs generally see the light of day on all consoles. Good indicators of this trend are Bioshock and Lost Planet. Unless Rockstar throws all their resources into the next major iteration, I think it is likely that we will see the DLC come to the PSN after MS's period of exclusivity expires.

  • Get_Shorty

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 10:35 am GMT

    Yea and probably isn't rated which is why we get full frontal nudity from a dude in this expansion. Rockstar always pushing the envelope. They probably couldn't revert to sex because of the hot coffee thing but I'm surprise there isn't an uproar about this lol

  • mcjakeqcool

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 10:18 am GMT

    Oh yeah baby! Go Xbox 360, guess who's gonna win the console race! Woo!

  • vision2020

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 10:09 am GMT

    ARE YOU PS3 OWNERS STUPID??? Playstation turned down the offer from rockstar first for the DLC,everyone knows that. So cry all you want because playstation didnt think GTA4 would be hit. Who was smarter yes microsoft it is.........

  • TTDog

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 10:06 am GMT

    @SicklySunStorm: You seem to have forgotten, of course, that the $50million was a loan they were always going to get back... it wasn't a payment to ensure exclusive DLC.

  • jsmoke03

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 10:00 am GMT

    kudos to ms...

  • zgreenwell

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 9:32 am GMT

    By buying the exclusive content, Microsoft was trying to associate GTA4 with the Xbox 360 more so than the PS3. Their objective was to sell consoles to all the people wanting to buy one specifically for that game. I'm pretty sure it worked, but the fact that the 360 was cheaper probably helped more.

  • Avenger1324

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 9:05 am GMT

    the wording is very deliberate - generated more revenue, NOT most sales.

    Of course it generated more revenue than any other product on XBL - it cost twice as much as regular DLC

  • SicklySunStorm

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 8:58 am GMT

    MS will easily make that $50mil investment back - I mean, it would only take 2.5mil users to download it at $20 a pop, and even then, that doesn't measure the real die hard fans who will download BOTH expansions and probably almost cut that number of people needed in half. Not to mention that $$$ they'll make from the few that buy the 360 exclusively for the DLC for this game. Well done MS is what I say!

    I hope after this first two expansions the PS3 sees some DLC for this game in future. Whether or not it's the existing two packs at a discounted price, anything at all would be great for those that decide they don't want a 360, whether it's for financial or fanboy reasons. The PS3 users certainly deserve something if they wait long enough....

  • jasonbarbour

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 8:43 am GMT

    $20... for DLC? you have to be kidding me...

  • TX360

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 8:21 am GMT

    Impressive well done R*

  • DaftPunkAlive

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 8:12 am GMT

    Since brendanhunt1 gave the ps3 version of gtaiv a 10 and brendahunt1 also gave lost and the damned a 1, im guessing he is a jealous ps3 fanboy. The lost and the damned has to be one of the few dlc that is actually worth the money. The new content is awesome and its longer then most dlc released. DLC that isn't worth the money is Fable 2: Knothole Island and Falllout 3: Operation Anchorage. The Lost and Damned on the other hand is totally worth it in my opinion.

  • hannify

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 8:06 am GMT

    too short felt ripped off

  • otanikun

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 7:46 am GMT

    It was a pretty fun download while it lasted, though I wish it'd have lasted longer than one sitting of which the game can be completed.
    I wouldn't be surprised if that money was earned back.

  • xbox4life76

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 6:32 am GMT

    I still haven't downloaded this game but I will fairly soon, just wanting to finish another title before starting a new one. I've heard great things about it and I'm not surprised. I think a lot of the success of this title has to do with the price. You practically get a new game for $20 give or take. I think that's pretty good and you don't have to go to a store and buy it either.

  • Ultraviolence

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 6:26 am GMT

    I must be extremely lucky so far, I have never received the RROD from my 360 since buying it last Christmas. I've been running this system almost everyday on the average of about 3-6 hrs a day. When I got it home after purchase, I checked the model#/SKU of my machine, and it turns out that I have the first model XBOX360 (talking about the internal processor size). After cursing for a few weeks, I came to realize that it hasn't been a problem at all (so far!). I dunno, maybe I'm not playing enough each day, like those folks who are having problems with their systems...

  • Gezquester

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 6:18 am GMT

    I just hope that one day DLC comes to the PS3 game.

  • YoJim8obaJoe posted Mar 2, 2009 5:57 am GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    YoJim8obaJoe

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 5:57 am GMT (hide)

    instead of buying exclusive expansions,they should put the money towards making a console that doesnt die every 5 mins.What point in all these good games when you going to RROD in a few weeks anyway

  • Temtamperu

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 5:33 am GMT

    tough little tomalies ukogmickey, I for one want and hope for more of the same. ive plenty of hdd and money I would like too spend on that sort of quality. and a lot of publishers (Bethesda) could learn from these guys.

  • ukogmickey

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 4:54 am GMT

    They need to keep the size down of future DLC simply because Ive ran out of space just about and if this file is big it wont make me want to go buy a bigger HD but I just wont get the add on. after the next DLC the whole GTA4 package could be over 3.5 gig.

  • BLaZe462

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 4:52 am GMT

    ok

  • StarlightHunter

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 4:51 am GMT

    thats a good thing for the xbox live market place. next the PITT!!!!!.

  • pete_merlin

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 4:35 am GMT

    well it is popular...and costs 1600. so what did you think would happen num nuts

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