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Grand Theft Auto V release would not save 2012 sales - Analysts

Take-Two's biggest series would help, but not significantly uplift traditional games revenue, experts say.

Even Grand Theft Auto V could not bring 2012's middling game industry sales out of the doldrums if released this year, according to a VentureBeat analyst roundup. The next entry in the open-world crime series could generate as much as $700 million for publisher Take-Two, but Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter said that would still be less than 10 percent of expected yearly industry sales. Annual figures have recently stayed at around $16 to $18 billion.

"Given the current momentum of the market, I doubt any major releases, even one of GTAV's size, would push the physical markets back into the positives," said Jesse Divnich, an analyst with Electronic Entertainment Research and Design. The game, which was announced in October 2011, will revisit the Southern California-inspired Los Santos of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. No release date has been specified.

The industry is still reliant on large releases such as GTAV, and Take-Two usually sees doubled revenue on the year of a major GTA release, according to the report. "The traditional gaming sector is under an enormous amount of downward pressure at the moment, and it will require a strong catalyst to shift that momentum," Divnich said.

Connor Sheridan
By Connor Sheridan, News Intern

Connor Sheridan is the News Intern at GameSpot in San Francisco. He loves Super Metroid and has seen "Weird Al" Yankovic in concert three times.

83 comments
TheZeroPercent
TheZeroPercent

gta5 will drop on gta4's 5th birthday

or it will be 8th gen

shaktiIIIgta
shaktiIIIgta

maybe taking some time more, could improve the game Mr. vivalatour.

 

Nice to remember they make millions and yet they want more...  still buying this game because it makes you laugh, entertains you for long and R* makes great games, it just doesn't releases like 2,3 games a year.... WTF!?  with that

 

One long great interesting game each two years would be great.

vivalatour
vivalatour like.author.displayName 1 Like

R* taking so much time makes games better = BULL

R* spending lots of time on trailers & hype = TRUE

all the trailers & hype makes us feel better = BULL

R* does make lots of money regardless = TRUE

sodiumpentathol
sodiumpentathol like.author.displayName 1 Like

Oh..?? They make 10% less than the expected yearly industry sales? Yes, and? Should I start crying now? I mean how much less is that on the millions of dollars that they make!? I can only wonder what they'll do if they had my yearly salary, minus 10%.. Probably jump of a cliff somewhere.

TheZeroPercent
TheZeroPercent

 @sodiumpentathol

 um

i think R* has sorta earned the right to win

sodiumpentathol
sodiumpentathol

 @TheZeroPercent

What?? Earned the right to win!? lol!! Would be something to let a sports team win simply because of their past accomplishments. No need for further competing with other teams, they already earned the right to win! Let's all just hang back and accept our defeat.

m_bd89
m_bd89

Rockstar always keep a tight lip on their GTA games until just before release, I thought people would get used to it by now. Also, I kinda feel bad for Take-Two, they've published some of my favorite modern games. I thought Max Payne 3 was a success and there's still Borderlands 2 coming out soon, which is a must buy for me. Other than that, what else did they publish this year, Spec ops and the Darkness 2? I don't think those games were worth 60$ each, I might pick up the latter out of the discount bin, but only when it becomes really cheap.

interrasteral7
interrasteral7

In my opinion, the only game I see that can save the 2012 game sales is sadly Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.

neil_2468
neil_2468 like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 4 Like

Tell us something we don't know. I'm actually glad that the gaming market is on the fritz since only few games that were worth buying came out this year. With that kind of money, there should be less focus on the amount of games being made and more focus on the quality of those games.

Malscyllis
Malscyllis like.author.displayName 1 Like

Hey Gamespot, i put my money on it that if you stop posting these stupid "analyst" articles you'd get a lot more respect from your followers.

Sgthombre
Sgthombre like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

"I can make wild guess, too."-Sgthombre

kadhirdl
kadhirdl

Some gameplay please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ElatedDuck
ElatedDuck

Maybe if they showed us some GAMEPLAY, people wouldn't be so skeptical about buying it. 

towely62
towely62

havent they been saying the same thing for the past 3 years about game sales falling but yet they always are proven wrong

aussiemuscle
aussiemuscle

Damn gamers eating instead of spending their money on games, how dare they?

Jmoolah95
Jmoolah95 like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

Fuck analyzes and game sales I just want to see an actual gameplay video dammit! I feel like Rockstar just wants us to blindly buy this game regardless of it being good or not. 

samantha_sneez
samantha_sneez

 @Jmoolah95

Kind of like what BioWare did with Mass Effect 3? Now that you say that, I'm kind of wary about this game, now.  

kennythomas26
kennythomas26 like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

I think that was the stupidest prediction I have ever heard that GTA 5 would not save the sales at the end of 2012 are you kidding me if GTA 5 comes out this year and most it will not and still with the release of GTA 5 and their figures, you have Halo 4, COD: Black-Ops 2,  Assassin's Creed 3 which I do believe was the top pre-ordered game a few month's ago and you got Far Cry 3, Borderlands 2 the new Medal of  Honor: Warfighter and Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, Forza 4 and I think their is few big game for the PS3 as well I think this year would end well for the gaming industry as a whole. Oh I almost forgot about the new Wii-U that should be hitting stores this winter as well.

 

So I think Micheal Pachter is really on something really good and if this game comes out this year that will be good if not I can wait until next March or April.

pauldevette
pauldevette

 @kennythomas26 Stealing our money and still complaning its to little. Are they this greedy or are the fans this stupid?

samantha_sneez
samantha_sneez

Ugh, Rockstar get over yourselves! Still no character creation? OMG! I know, I know, that's for Saint's Row and all, but golly jeez, Rockstar, I could care less about Niko Bellic throughout, because he was YOUR LAZY CREATION! Ugh, I'm gonna buy the game anyway, but the lack of character creation is very sickening.

DeKuip
DeKuip

GTA IV was the worst in the series's. Way to easy and short. After playing for 10 hours and not dying at all. For me it was a huge failure and hope they wont bring out anathor kids game like that. 

ARON1202
ARON1202

 @DeKuip he was good has the other ones, but he was not "huge failure" in my opnion

pauldevette
pauldevette

 @ARON1202 A huge failure might be a a little harsh but still compare it to san andreas and vice city its not even close to what it should be, And on top of that the dlc was nearly bigger then tthe game it self. So i bought a game for 60 Euro's and then they want me to buy dlc that already should be in the game. To me that's just stealing from youre fans.

otanikun
otanikun

Don't care, GTA V will still be quite epic, and as soon as they release the HD versions of GTA III, Vice City and San Andreas for the PS3 and I'm praying for a Vita release, I will be that much happier.

HaloPimp978
HaloPimp978 like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

I just want the game forget about the analysts and figures. We all are going to buy the game anyways.

ICE_PREDATOR
ICE_PREDATOR like.author.displayName 1 Like

rockstar games are trolling us all. Almost 1 year has passed since the release of the last trailer. and we got nothing since then. wtf

1337hackz
1337hackz

It's because as usual they didn't predict the release date right so they just pushed it back months. @ICE_PREDATOR

Cristero
Cristero like.author.displayName 1 Like

Who cares about figures that doesn't even exist yet? Give us GTAV now! That's what really matters.

astralislux
astralislux like.author.displayName 1 Like

With more and more shooter games of exoskeletons that shoot nuclear bombs at opponents, it's no wonder the industry is in the hole. 

MN121MN
MN121MN like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

So.... from what I can tell, Watch Dogs and GTAV will release the same year.....

james_324
james_324 like.author.displayName 1 Like

 @MN121MN Two really different games.. shouldn't be that big of a deal considering both look absolutely EPIC.

gullgullgull
gullgullgull like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

Boy I sure can't wait until I stop getting emails about **** analysts say and get something with even the slightest amount of substance.

ZOD777
ZOD777 like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 3 Like

Maybe if they dropped games back to 49.99-39.99 sales would improve.  Sure, there is less revenue per unit, but someone that only buys 3-5 games a year might now buy 6-8.  There are too many people that are not willing to spend 60 dollars on mediocre and iffy games.  Taking a hit on the price makes the games more accessible and affordable to those that are only mildly interested in a game instead of passing on them and saving for the must have titles.  It seems that the industry is going the opposite direction with DLC and micro-transactions, but in this economy, perhaps swaying things the other direction is actually the smarter business move.

james_324
james_324

 @ZOD777 So true. I end up having to pirate just to see if I'd like it! I just d/l the London 2012 Olympics and it sure as hell isn't worth $44.99!!! This would be perfectly suited for a nice $24.99 title. It's worth about that much in fun.

WCK619
WCK619 like.author.displayName 1 Like

The next entry in the open-world crime series could generate as much as $700 million for publisher Take-Two, but Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter -

 

aaaand that's where I stop reading.

qaziomer
qaziomer like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 3 Like

gta v surely gona be the biggest hit of the year 2012

 

james_324
james_324

 @qaziomer It probably won't be released this year, but yeah; whatever year it's released, it will be the biggest for a longgg time.

Darth_Starwind
Darth_Starwind like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

Its a slow year, big deal. Sometimes slow is good for the customers. It allows us to go back an replay some old games or it allows you to go buy that one game that you were interested  in but had other gaming priorities. Also its nearing the end of the current console cycle. Game sales tend to start falling off during this period

kennythomas26
kennythomas26

 @Darth_Starwind Yeah I have been noticing that with all the price drops this year and even on the games that have just came out and a couple of month's later it is now being sold for 29.99 or even lower like 19.99 and I have mentioned this to my nephew how games are getting cheaper and that includes used games as well.

sirkibble2
sirkibble2 like.author.displayName 1 Like

Despite all the money these publishers and developers are making, the industry is still in the pits. How in the world does that happen?

metalkid9
metalkid9

Can't believe it's been 9 months since we heard anything about the game. This is getting ridiculous. I mean Rockstar already has the game engine but it's taking longer than GTAIV

sirkibble2
sirkibble2

 @metalkid9 Guess they're trying to make it good. :)

metalkid9
metalkid9

 @sirkibble2 I hope so my friend, I hope so. If its taking this long it better be 10x better than GTAIV though. 

james_324
james_324

 @metalkid9 They found a bunch of glitches in the testing phase and hired people on in January to test it. The job description said it could last 1 year :S....The good news I guess is that it's in the testing phase. 

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