While Sony has made several blunders in the current gen console war one of the biggest was allowing Call of Duty 4 to go multi-platform. The game has become such a runaway success that it could have single-handedly changed the face of the war as we know it. Perhaps equally as big was allowing Grand Theft Auto 4 to go multi-platform. Although the game sold about 45/55%  on the PS3 and Xbox 360 respectively, there are rumblings that the next installment in the GTA series may become a Playstation exclusive by default.

Wait, what the hell are you talking about?

As has been documented, Rockstar was notably unhappy with the limitations of the DVD-9 format on the Xbox 360 and how it affected GTA 4. As we’ve all seen though, both versions of the game are practically the same. The rumblings this time around though are seem to be much more boisterous. Early rumours have Rockstar threatening to not release GTA5 on the Xbox, but that begs the question: Why? Why sacrifice all the money you would undoubtedly make by only creating the game for one console?

Although one can never account for backroom dealings and shattered business relationships, there is really only one answer.

They want their game to be good.

Was GTA4 lacking on the Xbox 360? Of course not. It was Game of the Year. It recieved rave reviews across the board. But could it have been better? WOULD it have been better if it had only been released for a single console? Of course. This applies to any game released on any console exclusively though. What makes this time around special is that the GTA developers may in fact be willing to part with the extra revenue in order to better perfect their craft which seems absolutely ludicrous in our current economic standings. It is not to say that Rockstar would be the first group to sacrifice sales for art. It is however to say that doing so now could prove to be an earth shaking event that has an indelible effect on how Video Games are made.

In a world driven by profit, and in an industry not well renowned for being bohemian, this kind of move would be as surprising as it would be dramatic. A triple-A developer openly supporting both their own art and A specific console could sway other third party developers to do the same. It would also give other developers a comfortable “out” to abandon a platform they wouldn’t want to develop on for fear of not returning enough profit. After all, in such hard economic times, it’s surprising that more companies aren’t already doing this and attributing it towards a need for the betterment of the game as opposed to monetary restrictions. Keep in mind as well, if Halo 3, Gears of War and Metal Gear Solid 4 have shown us anything, exclusive games can still sell ridiculously well regardless of being exclusive.

That being said, the whole “pursuing art” argument could simply be an excuse from Rockstar after the fact. Rockstar has a contractual obligation to produce 3 exclusive games for the PS3 as reported by the Hiphopgamer (through an interview with an industry insider) and other sources. We know one of these games is Agent, another one of these games may supposedly be the somewhat forgotten L.A. Noire, a sandbox game set in the 1930’s. GTA 5 would probably be not all that different than 4 regardless of development time and console exclusivity, and if L.A. Noire is factored in, that would mean all of the three promised exclusives would be off the table.

If one wanted to be even more pessimistic, this could be seen as also be seen as a moving away from Microsoft has the prime conduit for producing games. Take-Two openly denied Microsoft’s exclusivity bid for Bioshock 2 while EA is now releasing Dead Rising 2 on the PS3. Capcom has also recently confirmed a concurrent release of Lost Planet 2. Along with a slew of exclusives for the PS3, this could seem very dramatic, but there are still a lot of positives for the Xbox.

Don't worry cousin, beeg American teetee's will probably come to all platforms (minus Wii)

Even though EA has clearly made Dead Rising 2 multi-platform, the status of Mass Effect is still up in the air. Microsoft also has Epic, Bethesda and VALVe onboard as companies who are much more enamored with Microsoft than they are with Sony. And of course, staying with the pessimism, Microsoft has one very, very big asset. A seemingly inexhaustible amount of money. Everyone has their price, and a company as rich as Microsoft can probably name yours.

Microsoft made Rockstar rich. Rockstar took at least 30% of every sale from the GTA4 expansion pack, along with the millions of dollars they recieved from the exclusivity deal itself. Ultimately, beyond all of this industry wheeling and dealing as well as speculation, it just doesn’t seem like anyone can resist the siren song of the greenback. Perhaps that’s why I find it so interesting that the such a bohemian notion can be expressed by Rockstar. Even with evidence showing that it could be legitimate and genuine (undoubtedly in the exclusivity of Agent), I’m still not convinced that such dedication to art can even exist in our modern day industry. If it does come to pass though. it might just spur on the innovation and advancement in the industry that some believe is lacking. And if this kind of innovation can occur when times are tough, imagine how sweet it could be in times of plenty.

Just for the unsure the collection includes GTA1, GTA2, GTA3, GTA Vice City, GTA San Andreas,  GTA IV, Manhunt, Max Payne, Max Payne 2, Midnight Club 2 and Wild Arms.

It’s not all of it – I know, but for the low low price of £38.49/$69.99/€69.99 it’s hard to not buy it.. except for our European bretheren, you might want to find a good trusted friend from either the US or the UK to gift it to you and you send them the money.. Steam is kind of skewed against the europeans at the moment.

Click Here to buy it.

And click here if you feel that 1€ ≠ 1$

What do you mean it doesn't fit in the drive like this?

You’ve heard it all before, I’m sure, but the DRM battle still rages on, and Rockstar bring it to a whole new level of illogical thought process. There is plenty of past material to talk about on the subject, but rather than dig into the past(yet) I decided to start with the draconian drama du jour.

Quick aside, I’m sick of the word “draconian,” but it worked too well with that alliteration, don’t expect to see it again this article.

GTA4 is attached to our old friend SecuRom. If you’re hopelessly out of the loop on that, SecuRom is a spyware tool commonly used by game companies to prevent people from using their product. It usually installs irremovable components at the kernel level of your operating system, renders legitimate hardware and software unusable, and sends unspecified information back to Sony and possibly the game publisher. They say it’s used to prevent piracy, but so far, the only people that have been stopped from playing are people that bought the software.

Spyware really is the only thing you can call this stuff. That said, the first anti-virus company that adds DRM schemes like this to it’s definitions will have a lifetime customer in me.

In any case, you can find out all you want about SecuRom in the link I posted above, but here’s what’s special about Rockstar’s latest release. In a stunning act of hubris, someone at Rockstar posted the following challenge to pirates of the 7 Internets:

“Dont bother to beat our protection, guys. Think we spent 200k for you to play our game for free? Think twice!
You really cant crack this game believe me or not. We have done everything to stop you from playing it for free”

There are so many things wrong with this I don’t even know where to begin. The most obvious being that it WAS cracked. Unless there’s some hidden computer destroying piece of code that triggers when you beat the final mission or something, it looks like this guy was wrong.

The big thing to me though, is this $200,000 figure. Even if Rockstar got 100% of the retail price of the game, that’s 4,000 people that would have to buy the game to make up the difference. Considering all the publishers and distributors and retailers that get a piece of the pie, I’d be surprised if Rockstar even saw 10% of the price of the game.

In the grand scheme of how many people buy GTA games, yes, 4,000 or even 10,000 people isn’t that many to convince, but the fact is that this isn’t going to convince a whole lot of people weren’t already considering buying it anyway, and it’s certainly not going to convince the lifetime pirates. In fact, spending a little extra time making the game run on lower end computers would have increased their customer base a lot more than 4,000 people. That combined with not spending nearly a quarter million on a DRM scheme that doesn’t work, and that probably would have doubled the profits.

I’m a marketing genius.

Many people mistake DRM complaints as pirates wanting things easier. Game makers especially. Rockstar themselves have a sarcastic comment about it in this game along the lines of “How dare game makers try to make money off their product?” This really isn’t the case at all. Pirates don’t care about DRM. Plenty of people that make these cracks don’t even play the games, they’re just in it for the challenge. You keep building the wall higher and higher and the pirates keep sailing around. It’s the customers that get the short end of the stick from DRM lockdowns.

What companies like Valve and Stardock have realized, is that you have to make the purchased product more valuable than the pirated one. I don’t have any illusions about Steam not being a DRM scheme, but it actually offers something in return for paying customers. If you buy games from these companies you get competent, full featured online multiplayer, free updates and patches, and as an added bonus, no malware installed on your machine.

There are plenty of people that will complain about Steam just like I complained about SecuRom. It’s a preference thing I suppose, but a whole other topic altogether. Not a bad topic to get to sometime later.

What people like Rockstar and EA need to do is spend money making their games run well instead of making a pirated copy work better than the retail one.

Rockstar’s explanation for all this commotion? That the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV has been optimized for “future generations of PCs with higher specifications than are currently widely available.” This means that even if your rig can play Crysis at very high settings, you’ll have to contend yourself with playing Grand Theft Auto IV without it looking its best. Huh.

As for the bugs, Rockstar has this to say:

We are working to help solve these [issues] as quickly as possible.

Let’s hope so, Rockstar. Let’s hope so.