14 DAY TRIAL // Grand Theft Auto IV was one of the biggest videogame releases of 2008, managing to boost the overall value of the industry while also making sure that the year was very profitable for Take Two and Rockstar.
A part of the same success will be replicated in 2009 as the companies will profit from the release of two downloadable content packs for the game, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony. One videogame industry analyst is saying that the same will happen in 2010, with two new packs coming as Rockstar is hard at work on the inevitable Grand Theft Auto V, which might arrive in 2011.
The prediction comes from Todd Mitchell, who is an analyst with Kaufman Bros. Equity Research. He told GamesIndustry.biz that “I would expect that there would be two more pieces of downloadable content for GTA IV, that's what has been indicated to me, although formats are unsure. It's been indicated to me to me that would be the case.”
The analyst also believes that Take Two is in the process of making sure that it launches new properties with franchise potential in an effort to make sure that it is not as dependent as now on regular releases of Grand Theft Auto content. Both Red Dead Redemption and Agent, which are being worked on by Rockstar, and Mafia from 2K Games will probably have good sales and will help Take Two reach revenue of 1.3 million dollars in 2010 and 1.6 billion in 2011.
Until then, the company has already announced that it plans to release GTA: Chinatown Wars for the PlayStation Portable, after the game posted less than stellar sales on the Nintendo DS, probably because of its Mature rating. Mitchell is also saying that the aging PlayStation 2 platform from Sony might get a new GTA release, probably a stripped down version of the fourth game in the series.