This violent videogame has made more money than any movie ever
Published: Apr 8, 2018 11:53 a.m. ET
https://tinyurl.com/y97q32d7
* GTAV超屌長賣 持續收益 所創造的經濟規模超越任何單一媒體title
包括史上最賣座的電影 阿凡達 (更不用說超越COD了)
*60億的經濟規模超屌 Take-Two Interactive Inc.賺翻了
*電玩產業前途無可限量 可能超越電影業 (Hollywood)
‘Grand Theft Auto V’ has brought in $6 billion, more than any other single
media title in history, and continues to sell
“Grand Theft Auto V” has been criticized for depicting torture, deploying
heavily sexual scenes, using racially offensive terms and a misogynistic
portrayal of women.
It is also the most financially successful media title of all time.
Since it’s launch in 2013, “GTA V” has sold 90 million units, putting its
total haul for publisher Take-Two Interactive Inc. TTWO, -4.06% in the
neighborhood of $6 billion—far above the success of blockbuster movies like
“Star Wars” or “Gone With The Wind,” which both collected more than $3
billion, adjusted for inflation. Even taking into account DVD and streaming
sales would not put the biggest movie blockbusters in GTA V’s neighborhood,
said Cowen analyst Doug Creutz, estimating those sales might add up to $1
billion to the films’ totals.
“I think it’s a wild outlier,” Creutz told MarketWatch in a phone
interview. “I think maybe with the exception something Nintendo has made—
Mario Brothers—but aside from that there’s never been a console game that’
s sold so many units.”
While the Mario franchise has sold more units in total, no single Mario game
has come close to collecting $6 billion on its own. GTA V stands alone
largely because of the title’s continued longevity: It continues to bring in
hundreds of millions in revenue more than four years after its launch,
finishing 2017 as the sixth best-selling videogame in the U.S., according to
NPD Group data.
GTA V sales are so impressive over such a long period of time that when
asked, Needham & Co. videogame analyst Laura Martin said she literally didn’
t believe that a title originally launched in 2013 could sustain that level
of success into 2018. Martin does not cover Take-Two, but does cover
competitors Activision Blizzard Inc. ATVI, -2.96% and Electronic Arts Inc.
EA, -2.37% which employ a strategy similar to Nintendo’s with Mario: Crank
out new titles based on the property to get more money.
“The companies I cover have a new update every year or two, at the longest,
often with a big expansion pack,” she said in a telephone interview, adding
that companies should be investing in titles every year within existing
franchises.
By comparison to making films and other media, videogames are a lucrative and
profitable industry, in part because the medium itself lends itself to a
data-heavy approach in terms of what is and is not working to boost profits.
In 2017, consumers spent $36 billion on videogames, up 15% from the year
earlier, according to NPD Group data. Box office sales improved 3% globally
to a record total of almost $40 billion, though domestic returns declined and
prompted questions about cinema chains and film-production companies.
“Videogames are a much better business than [movie] studios,” said KeyBanc
analyst Evan Wingren in a phone interview. “Games in general have the
enviable position that their content is interactive, which allows them to
make data-driven insights and adjust games and business models that benefits
players and the company.”
Investors appear to understand the potential for a massive windfall and sent
Take-Two stock up 65% in the past year, as the S&P 500 index SPX, -2.19%
rose 13%. Rivals have benefited as well: Activision Blizzard climbed 33% and
Electronic Arts shares rose 13% in the past year.
Whether there is a kind of secret sauce in “GTA V” and its colossal success
that Take-Two can replicate in the future is an open question. The release
timing benefited, to some extent, by the fact that the publisher released it
two generations of gaming console—potentially selling duplicate copies, but
also benefiting from two separate audiences. “There’s been some double
dipping,” Creutz said.
Take-Two declined to make executives available for this article.
“GTA V” is a very good game, according to critics and players. The gaming
press gave the title strong reviews, despite the game initially lacking
multiplayer component. Since its launch, developers at Rockstar Games—the
Take-Two unit responsible for making the game—have taken pains to improve
its flaws but also manufacture an enormous amount of additional interactive
material.
“It’s a high-fidelity game that looks very good,” Wingren said. “Fidelity
can only go so far, it comes down to content that they’ve created such as
the vast world people can continually reinvest in. People create characters
that become their second lives at times.”
The online world of “GTA V” also creates a model, says Wingren, where as
people spend real money on online components, it allows Rockstar to reinvest
resources into developing more content, which in turn fuels more spending by
players. “It fuels this virtuous cycle.”
That world is also violent and rife with what critics call racially offensive
language and sexual content that is misogyny toward women, among other
things. The series has been dogged by controversy since it’s launch and the
latest iteration of the game was no different: there is a grisly torture
sequence, the game has a high body count (to put it mildly), it’s possible
to kidnap and murder sex workers and people use footage from the game—and
others—to harass women on the internet.
Yet despite the controversial aspects, the game is wildly successful.
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Its success leaves the looming and perhaps uncomfortable question for
investors and Take-Two executives of whether the publisher is going to
replicate the massive success “GTA V” has enjoyed. The company hasn’t
formally announced a sequel which could potentially build on the audience of
about 90 million, and declined to provide an update when MarketWatch asked.
Creutz says the possibility exists that upcoming titles such as the
fall-slated “Red Dead Redemption 2” may be equally valuable, but it is
remote.