@dionion: Yeah, I meant shop there. Ye olde e-shoppe...

dionion

So, is there anyone who knows this Shopto store? I would be more convinced if this were a more famous e-shopp like play.com or amazon.co.uk

dionion

@PapaBear434:

Gotta lova ya Papabear ;). Btw its been a long while since Ive seen you on PSN.

Hope I'll see ya around the MGO beta :).

luxusa

jfx316

jfx316

@Kazzahdrane: Ha ha! I still run a games shop, but it's my mates company. Sooooo much better than working for some faceless company. I'll never use my philosophy degree, so it's a life in video games retail for me!

GOD

@Josh*: ditto

f0cus

@Herman Gatevold:

I want a piece of plastic! Oh wait I got 3. One that plays Halo 3 (only) one that plays nintendo games and one that is a blu-ray player and plays warhawk! YAY!

GOD

pass

f0cus

@GOD: Dundee, games industry wannabee central. Sadly I'm graduating soon so will probably be leaving for a proper grown-up job where I don't get so much good banter :-( Nice to see you're still into games despite previously managing a store - you guys don't get the credit you deserve for your hard work most of the time.

P.S. have you got that angel of darkness mate? how much will you give me for my copy itstotallyhardlyplayedatalllike.

Kazzahdrane

Anyway...

I'm sure this will sell by the shit load. I think GTA belongs on the sony consoles. And this is a winner of a bundle

GOD

@Herman Gatevold:

I want a PS3, but it is still way too expensive for what you actually get. A piece of plastic that barely plays any good games.

Internet memes and worn out loyalists tripe are the sure sign of a weak mind and poor rationalization skills.

PapaBear434

@Kazzahdrane:I still use the 360 controller for windows =p

Josh*

@Kazzahdrane: Yo! Which Gamestation do you work in. I was the manager of Bolton, but left for pastures new.

GOD

I want a PS3, but it is still way too expensive for what you actually get. A piece of plastic that barely plays any good games.

Perhaps I'll buy one later this year, but my Xbox 360 is serving me well atm.

Herman Gatevold

@Josh*: I tip my hat to then, sir, for your superior product knowledge :-) So many ess-kay-yoo-s!

And yeah, I have a not-completely-crappy PC but for some reason I just prefer playing most games on my 360. Orange Box was the last PC game I bought and that was the first one in over a year (aside from Sam & Max episode downloads).

Kazzahdrane

Sony gets a GTA4 bundle, Micrsoft gets DLC. Guess we know who worked out the better deal. No wonder Sony didn't care about the DLC. And what the heck is up with Microsoft and Rockstar negotiating $50 million for DLC when clearly a bundle is the better deal? This whole scenerio is so bizzare.

PaulHunter

@Kazzahdrane:

There was a PGR + 360 bundle as well. I should know, I owned it for.... maybe 3 or 4 days. Damn, Geometry Wars sure is awesome though. But I have a PC for that. And BioShock, Orange Box, COD4, GH3, and nearly every other worthwhile 360 title -.-

Josh*

@dionion: Good point, forgot the Halo 3 console itself. However, that didn't actually include the Halo 3 game.

The Forza 2 & VP pack is a seperate pack which retailers can sell (include for free though, pretty much) with new consoles, but the games are not included in the box with the console.

@Spew: Quite possibly. I know where I work (Gamestation) sold almost all of them new, but not 100% sure about the Call of Duty 3 one as in my mind I can only recall seeing it in our preowned stock.

Kazzahdrane

@Josh*: To replace their dead ones!

Spew

@DrMekon: People still buy 360s? :p

Josh*

@dionion: There is a DMC4 package, but I saw it in Hong Kong so not sure if it's worldwide (PS3). I don't think I saw a Halo 3 pack, but fair enough! I do prefer Sony's packaging, even if this GTAIV one isn't anything special.

Spew

@DrMekon: Yea but it's not a pack in available everywhere in Europe. The pack in is important as it a way for the PS3 to market itself.... buy a ps3, and get GTA free! This packin bundle is also coming to the rest of Europe as well, other websites for other countries already have it up for preorder.

It's suprising when MS supposedly had exclusive marketing rights to the game, yet the PS3 is getting the pack in with big GTA on its box.

Kyle81

@Kazzahdrane: UK but Vietnam currently. I didn't realise there was a COD3 one but the others I do remember, their boxes are so unforgettable that I must have blocked them out until you mentioned them! Were they retailer exclusive, perhaps?

Spew

@Spew: I can think of The Halo 3 premium package that is still going on as well as a Forza 2 & Viva Pinata pack.
And I don't think any DMC4 bundle was released over here.

dionion

Or you can get it with a 360 for £189

Dunno if it's been posted already but Play.com have a 360 premium + GTA4 deal here for £199 - [www.play.com]

When you checkout, there's a "promotional voucher button" on the right hand side, click it and enter experience08 and it gets an extra £10 off.

DrMekon

Shiny.

Sugarbloodsuckers

@Josh*: I think SBB assumed you were in North America. I too am waiting for a 80Gb DS3 PS3 with BC for the UK.

@Spew: Can't tell where you are from your commentor page, but here in the UK we've had these 360 pack-ins that I can think of right now:

World Cup 2006 Core as you mentioned
Gears of War Premium pack
Smackdown vs Raw 2006 Premium pack
Call of Duty 3 Premium pack
Pro Evolution Soccer 6 Premium pack

There have probably been one or two more that I can't remember right now.

These may well have been UK-exclusive, though.

Kazzahdrane

If you don't trust those foreign types you'll be in trouble as chances are the game store will have lots of eastern european staff

abigsmurf

@SBB: link plz? I do sleep sometimes, heh. If so... then, good! The UK's been without a BC option for too long, now.

Josh*

OH whats that smell, whats that smell? Oh, I smell a Jack Thompson can of a whoop ass in the near future, what, Gran Theft Auto? What. and thats the bottom line cause Jack Thompson said so.

J.Thompson

So GT5 Prologue, GTAIV, MGS4, DMC4.. they're really trying to push the single-game console packs hard. I guess they need to in some sort of effort to increase sales past the 11k a week in Japan. The 360 has only had the World Cup 2006 Core Pack bundle (with football, zomg).. a GTAIV pack seems necessary, perhaps with the Elite so the colour scheme remains.

Spew

@Josh*: There was a post last night about that, and that's exactly what they're putting out soooo....

SBB

OMG!!! a ps3 with GTA4 but..... the case picture is on the front of the box !!!!!!!!!!1 OMG!!!

Viper

Maybe this has been answered in other posts, but why no bundle for the 360? Is this Rockstar calming the waters with Sony after selling the exclusive rights to DLC to Microsoft?

TitillatedOcelot

Still shipping with the sixaxis, selling the obsolete controllers to the Europeans. Oh Sony you're so clever.

Kyoujin

Oooh...I can add an image or something to my comment now? Sweeet.

On topic: The design is pretty nifty. So much so that I just used the word nifty.

Jechticknight

At £299, that's essentially getting the game for free.

Which is great, but I want an 80GB BC DS3 package before I go for a PS3... maybe I'll get lucky with MGS4. Or, never.

Josh*

The box design is very appealing.I usually don't pay much attention to that sorta stuff,but I like it.

enewtabie

w/ the SIXAXIS?! really, sheesh. All controllers in new bundles/consoles should be DS3. Seems like Sony is trying to push the old stuff on us.

DrStrangepork

Sony is just making their statement - GTA is still a Playstation branded game.

Vistrix

@luxusa:

I didn't pre-order it, so not likely. I will, however, be on GTA.

PapaBear434

@dionion: I've only used them once but their prices are often really good, and their postage is free and quick. Well worth checking there for games as well as the usual suspects as I saved about £5 over any other online retailer on a new game a while back.

Kazzahdrane

DO WANT.

Frank

@TitillatedOcelot: it sure seems that way.

@Herman Gatevold: omg you've cracked the case! are you prof. layton or something? cause if you did some real investigating, you would find that for 400 bucks, you are getting alot in that box. and there are games out there to play. im just playing Watson to your Sherlock.

zanzibarlegend

Hmm, no DS3 in this makes it an annoying deal but for £300 I might be swayed...

Makeda

@Herman Gatevold: just curious, why do you want a PS3 then?

nolifedopestar (PSN: noliferuin)

@nolifedopestar (PSN: noliferuin): Because, you know what, I don't know (like the guy from the PS3 launch video).

Well actually I have played all the GTA games in the past, most recently GTA3, Vice City and San Andreas on the PS2, so there is definitly a "do want" down the pipe, but not at the moment.

I'll probably run out and buy one once Little Big Planet comes out.

Herman Gatevold

Coming out in AUSTRALIA on April 29th, for a RRP of $749.

And for those interested, Dual Shock 3 will also be out April 24th, for $99.95.

That is all :)

Y2Jason

@PaulHunter:

Not sure how you think a bundle is a better deal. Bundles may move a lot of consoles in the first few weeks of release, but you can also see them stacked 20 high in Best Buy a month later. Halo 3 for instance. DLC makes money for as long as people are still interested in the game. You've acknowledged the software sales are likely to favour the 360 in other comments, which means more people potentially buying the DLC.

As for the notion that Sony "didn't care" about getting the DLC, that's just nutty. If they could have gotten both the bundle and the DLC, they would have. Both sides would like to be able to claim the definitive GTA experience, and having both would have justified such a claim.

Tetley

@Kazzahdrane:

I believe they meant LAUNCH packs. The bundles you mentioned are released 5-6 months after the game's release date.

MS should seriously get their act together and bring a 360 GTA pro/elite/arcade out because Sony's gaining a lot of grounds.

reptile168

Its cheaper to buy a Xbox 360 and GTA IV ...

We might get the "game for free" but I also got one with my PS2 and a few with my Xbox.

As for DS3 ... honestly I doubt it will reach PAL before 2009.

Drakron

@Tetley: I think it's a better deal in terms of profitability. When casual shoppers walk into a Best Buy or a Wal-Mart on April 29th they're going to see mounds of PS3 hardware bundles and will probably think that's the definitive version. I imagine GTA4 would have already pushed more PS3s (due mainly to Xbox existing high install base and that GTA is, to a certain extent, viewed a Sony console game), but with the bundle I'm certain it will push more PS3s than 360s.

In terms of DLC, I think that only factors into the hardcore players that the frequent the blogosphere. To the everyday casual players they will have no idea that DLC is coming in 4 months. Microsoft paid a reported $50 million for the exclusive rights to the DLC. I was thinking the only reason they would buy these rights is to advertise the heck out of it and sell a ton of consoles. But now, with the PS3 bundle it looks like Sony is the one pushing the hardware. So the next logical reason for Microsoft to buy the exclusive rights would be for the DLC fees they will charge. In a hypothetical scenario that the DLC costs $10 to buy, Microsoft would need 5,000,000 (That's assuming that Microsoft receives all the revenue and that there's not a profit share clause with Take Two). The math just doesn't add up to a good deal in my opinion.

Here is a simple scenario with some assumptions:

18,000,000 [current 360 install base]
+ 2,000,000 [additional hardware GTA4 sells]
--------------
20,000,000 [total 360 consoles]
* 40% [attach rate for GTA4]
---------------
8,000,000 [total sales of GTA4]
* 60% [perecentage of 360 GTA4 owners that use Xbox Live and would also consider buying DLC]
----------------
4,800,000 [potential 360 owners to sell DLC to]
= at least $10 per person must be spent for Microsoft to break even

To me that doesn't seem nearly as profitable in comparison to pushing hardware and receiving years of income from future game purchases. It's going to take an awful lot of downloads to recover $50 million, let alone make a good profit. There is also a huge lag time to factor in (5-6 before DLC arrives). Sony is screaming "buy our console bundle now!" vs. Microsoft's "buy an Xbox 360 and GTA4, and in 6 months we'll give you exclusive DLC!". I just don't think that's as strong of a message to casual shoppers. For someone like you or I, yeah Microsoft's message is better - I'd rather have DLC available to me than not. If I was Microsoft I would have given Sony the DLC and instead secured rights to a bundle, for the sole reason of attracting all those casual shoppers that don't know, or don't care about DLC. I also think you have to factor in that the game reportedly takes at least 50 hours to beat (one previewer said as high as 100 hours) - just how many people are going to beat the game, let alone want more content? I don't even think I've played any game for 100 hours (except maybe with StarCraft?!). I might have been over estimating that 60% would consider buying the DLC...

[The Halo 3 pack is definitely an exception here, Microsoft admitted to greatly over estimating demand and produced a large over supply of these bundles. Most historical bundles have sold really well. Plus the popularity of GTA greatly eclipses that of Halo.]

PaulHunter

Amazon have bundle options too

[www.amazon.co.uk]

UK-R