Grand Theft Auto 4

Publisher: Rockstar GamesDeveloper: Rockstar NorthFormats: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PCRelease date: PS3, Xbox 360 29/04/08, PC 03/12/08

Grand Theft Auto 4 was released on 29th of April for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles. It sold 6 million copies worldwide making over $500 million in revenue. This case study looks at how this success was achieved, how Rockstar created GTA 4, then marketed and distributed the game, and how the product was consumed.

PRODUCTIONRockstar Games is vertically integrated company so not only do they publish games (fund, market and distribute) but they also develop their own games. They have achieved this vertical integration by purchasing already established development studios, renaming them and making them part of the Rockstar Games structure.One such development studio is Rockstar North - formerly an independent company called DMA Design. Rockstar North are the developers of the Grand Theft Auto series which first started with Grand Theft Auto for the PC, was released in 1997.The game had a simple top down presentation and basic graphics but was distinctive in several ways.

1) Free roaming structure/ ‘sandbox’ game – the gamer was placed within a city and given freedom to do what they wanted – explore, do missions, cause chaos

2) Dynamic environment – the game was set in a city where the other inhabitants reacted to the actions of the character e.g. ambulances would turn up to the scene of accidents

3) Parody of America – the setting was a fictional US city that parodied the excesses of America culture.

4) Mature content – the lead character was a gang member who indulges in a number of criminal activities: murder, carjacking etc

5) Multi-action game – the game allowed you drive any car, take to the streets on foot and fire various weapons.

These core concepts have remained consistent throughout the series that has seen many different developments the most significant of which came in Grand Theft Auto 3 when the game ditched the top-down 2D presentation in favour of a 3-dimensional world.So successful had Rockstar North created the 3D GTA that GTA 3 went on to be the biggest selling game on the PlayStation 2.Two further games – Vice City and San Andreas – that used the same universe and game engine as GTA 3, were released to great critical and commercial success.

Rockstar North began developing GTA 4 in November 2004, just after the release of GTA: San Andreas. Grand Theft Auto 4 differs from the GTA 3, Vice City and San Andreas in the following ways:

1) It is set in a new rebooted GTA universe so it shares no characters with the GTA 3 universe.2) It is a contemporary setting unlike the period setting of 80s Miami for Vice City or 90’s

California for San Andreas.3) The graphics are photo-realistic rather being stylised and cartoony.

4) There are no obvious film references in the story unlike Vice City (Scarface) or San Andrea (Boyz n da Hood) – Rockstar wanted to take gaming forward by being less reliant on existing ‘texts’.

5) There is little character development in terms of appearance and skills, unlike in San Andreas when the size, haircut and abilities could be modified.

6) The scale of Niko’s success isn’t on the scale with previous GTA characters – in Vice City and San Andrea they work their way to the very top, but Niko doesn’t become ‘King of New York’ at the end of the game.

7) Rockstar used RAGE (Rockstar’s Advanced Game Engine) to create the game.

Game EngineDeveloping a game is a long and complicated process that requires a virtual world with its own look, physics and rules, to be created. To do this a ‘game engine’ is developed that can create all the necessary elements such as 2D or 3D graphics, physics, animation, sound etc. As this process is particularly complicated many developers use existing engines used in other games. This then gives them more time to work on unique feature such as characters, structure and gameplay.

Rockstar previously used Renderware – a game engine developed by UK company Criterion. But when Criterion were bought by Electronic Arts (a rival publishing company to Rockstar) Rockstar developed their own game engine and called it RAGE. The first game that used RAGE was Rockstar Present’s Table Tennis.Rockstar also used an additional animation engine developed by UK company Natural Motion called Euphoria to simulate realistic character movement and response.

The use of these two technologies has made GTA 4 the realistic, visually stunning game it is. Of course it require other new technologies such as new consoles that could run the game (PS3, 360) and new TV (high definition) to exhibit the game in the quality Rockstar intended.

MusicThe game features 18 different radio stations, 3 of which are ‘Talk-Radio’, the rest play licensed music from artists such as Philip Glass, Black Sabbath, Busta Rhymes, Kanye West. It was reported that Rockstar paid $5000 per track and such was Rockstar’s determination to get right tracks they even paid a private detective to track down the relatives of the Skatt Bros. in order to get permission for one their tracks.

Voice TalentWhile previous GTA games had celebrity voice talent such as Michael Masden, Kyle MacLachan, Frank Vincent (GTA 3),Ray Liotta, Burt Reynolds, Lee Majors (Vice City), Samuel L. Jackson, Shaun Ryder, Chris Penn (San Andreas) – GTA 4 used relatively unknown actors to voice the major characters e.g. Niko Bellic was voiced by Michael Hollick.

Delay in the developmentGTA 4 had an original release date of 19th October 2007, but on the 2nd August 2007 Take Two (Rockstar’s parent company) announced that the GTA would not be completed in time. On 24th of January 2008, Rockstar confirmed the new release date as 29th April 08.

The official explanation for the delay: ‘We all recognize that perfecting the game is vital and I can assure everyone it will be worth the wait. We owe it to the game’s millions of fans, to our dedicated development team, and to our shareholders to make sure that Grand Theft Auto IV is a groundbreaking gaming experience that takes maximum advantage of next generation technology.”

However, Jeronimo Barrera, President of Product Development at Rockstar explains that developing for the PS3 was a factor in the delay: "It's really no surprise to anybody that the PS3 was definitely a contributing factor to that.’

Impact of the delayIt was bad news for both Sony and Microsoft (manufacturers of the PS3 and 360 respectively) as they had both hoped the release of GTA 4 would drive the sales of their consoles. It was particularly bad news for Microsoft as they had paid Rockstar $50 million to ensure that future episodic content would be exclusive to the Xbox 360.Microsoft’s thinking was that consumer would choose to play GTA 4 on the 360 rather than the PS3 (and so buy a 360 rather than a PS3) as the new content would only be available on the 360.For other games publishers it meant a restructuring of their schedules as many publishers avoided releasing any products around the time of release of GTA 4 as they thought consumers would only be spending money on Rockstars product.The delay helped some games such as Activision’s Call of Duty 4 which went on to be the biggest selling game for the 360 in the US between Nov 2007 and Jan 2008, an achievement that would have been unlikely if GTA 4 had been released the month before.The change of release date also affected other media industries for instance some film companies had avoided releasing films in that week. It was reported several Hollywood executives blamed the arrival of Halo 3 (X360) for a 27% drop in cinema ticket sales in the same month.Many experts feared that GTA 4’s release in April 08 would effect the revenue for the Iron Man film, however as the film went on to gross $98,618,668 in is opening weekend, these fears were a little unfounded.

DISTRIBUTIONGrand Theft Auto 4 was distributed in a conventional way for the games industry using high street retail, online retail and digital delivery to ensure consumers could purchase it easily.

RetailSpecialist electronic and gaming shops: Game, GameStation, Curries,Entertainment retail stores: HMV, Zavvi, FoppSupermarkets: Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys

Online retailAmazon, play.com, gameplay.com

Publisher’s online storeRockstargames.com/warehouse

Online content delivery systemDownloaded for PC (AND PC ONLY) from Steam.

Where it wasn’t availablePlayStation Store (the PS3’s online store) or XboxLive Marketplace (the 360’s online store). GTA 4 was not available to download for the console as a game the size of GTA 4 (in terms of data) is not suitable for these services.

OnLiveThis is a new service that is currently being tested in US, that uses broadband to stream games onto consumers PCs. The idea is that the consumer would no longer need to buy a physical copy of the game or need a specific machine (console) to play the game.

At the moment a game the size of GTA 4 could not be distributed in this manner as broadband speeds are not quick enough and the demand on the servers that would house the game would be too great. However, if OnLive is successful it could be another means of distribution – one that would cut out retailers out of the chain of distribution and possibly publishers.

MARKETING

‘We were more heavily influenced by companies working in other media which had a sense of style that we admired - record labels, obviously, and clothing companies, which were obsessed with details and with an integrity between design, product and marketing. This is something that has always been very important to us: that the product, its packaging and public presentation should feel like the same thing, which is why we have always created all of our advertising materials ourselves, from TV creative to posters to promotional materials.’Dan Houser, 2002

Rockstar have always been particularly strong at marketing as one of their main aims was to create Rockstar Games as a cool and recognisable brand. As the above quote shows they create all their marketing and advertising in house rather than getting external agencies to do it. The idea is to have the same people who are creative forces behind the product in control how it is presented to the public – ‘integrity between design, product and marketing’.

For Grand Theft Auto 4 they used a number of strategies:(for more detail see the Marketing Powerpoint on the blog)

Conventional MarketingAdvertising in print, TV, online and billboardsLarge mural painted in New York

Point of sale promotionsIf you pre-ordered GTA 4 with amazon you got a free GTA 4 licence plate.Special collectors editions were available that came in a GTA 4 duffel bag and safety deposit box

Use of the press‘Drip-feeding’ information to specialist press to ensure interest was maintained up to release and that not too much information was given away that it would spoil the game for the consumer.Exclusive content given to magazines in return for covers.Interviews and coverage organised with the mainstream press. Eg. “Is GTA 4 Art” in the Observer Magazine.

Viral MarketingEmailing the address on the Wanted posters, teaser trailers advertising Liberty City Police Department and in-game cars.Spoof websites

Guerilla marketingWanted posters, stickers around New York City.

Building relationships with fansitesGTA as a hardcore and fanatical following and since the very first GTA fans have created website to post news, reviews and information about the games. Rockstar communicate and support these sites by giving them exclusive assets (screenshots, wallpapers) and access to the game.

For GTA 4 several fansites were sent new assets and information, regular gifts such as promotional T-shirts and stickers. Then just before the launch the editors of the fansites were taken on an all-expenses trip to New York to play GTA 4 before its release.

EXHIBITION(See spider-diagram on the media-blog)Exhibition has a lot of crossover with both Marketing and Consumption as it concerns where the game is displayed, shown and seen.

The most obvious place where GTA 4 is exhibited is the consumer’s home as a PC, PS3 or Xbox360 is needed to play the game and a HD TV is need to display the image.This is in contrast to many popular games that are designed for handheld machines such as the PSP, DS and mobile phone which can be played/exhibited anywhere. Also it’s not available for the Wii. So Rockstar are have a specific idea about where they would like it exhibited as they want the consumer to be able to appreciate the amazing visual quality of the game and richness of gameplay.

(It is important to note that Rockstar have created a GTA experience for the Nintendo DS in the form of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars which uses the top-down view that was last used for GTA 2 – so they are by no means ignoring the handheld market.)

There are, however, many other ways GTA 4 is exhibited:

Shops – in-store demo podsYoutube – mission walkthroughs, reviews, stuntsMagazines – mission walkthroughs, reviews, follow-up feature on GTA’s secretsGaming cafes – where gamers go to play GTA 4 onlineTelevision – adverts, news features

Looking at the above list you can see the crossover with Marketing as many reasons for exhibiting the game is for the purpose of advertising and promoting the game. Then there’s the different ways in which the game is consumed which leads to the different ways it is exhibited.

CONSUMPTIONThis section examines what happens when the consumer has managed to get hold of a copy of Grand Theft Auto 4 and the different ways in which gamers experience the game.

Exploiting the GTA’s freedomGTA 4 is often called a ‘sandbox’ game as the idea is that all the tools for having fun are provided for the gamer, but it is up to the gamer how they are used.The result of this is that everybody will play GTA 4 in their own unique way.For example: some will just cause mayhem, some will tackle all the story missions first, others the side missions, other will just explores, other will go just go bowling.Then there’s all the other variables to consider – which gun/car/radio station/clothes you allow Niko to use – these will all be different depending on who plays the game.

Parody of AmericaRemember GTA is written and developed by Brits – so much of the humour is British (which explains the reliance on innuendo) and its vision of New York focuses on the excesses in US culture. This means UK consumers will appreciate much of GTA4’s content in different way to US consumers.

Modding GTAGaming Mods (short for Modifications) are the work of fans (or developers) who understand the way a game is coded enough to change certain factors to alter the game.It could be something as simple as changing costumes or environment textures, all the way through to changing the structure and objectives of the game.The PC versions of games are the easiest to modify so there is vibrant mod-culture in the PC gaming world and one of the most popular games to modify is Grand Theft Auto 4. An examples of GTA mods is a Spider-Man-Mod where Niko has been given a superhero costume and superhuman jumping powers.Modding is a inventive way of consuming GTA 4 – taking the game and using it to create a unique gaming experience that wasn’t intended by the original developers.

Use of the video editorThe PC version of GTA 4 a replay editor was included allows players to record and edit game clips, videos can then be uploaded to Rockstar's Social Club website. Fans have used this as a tool to make their own movies about life in Liberty City.Check out Kings of Liberty - The Chase is On, on youtubeAnd others at https://tv.rockstargames.com

GTA 4: The Lost and DamnedThe Lost and the Damned is an episodic expansion pack for GTA 4 and is the first in expansion pack since London 1961 was released in 1999. An expansion pack is an ‘add-on’ to an existing videogame usually adding new weapons, mission and extra characters. As it is only an ‘add-on’ expansion packs need the original game to function – consequently you can’t play The Lost and the Damned without owning GTA4.

The Lost and the Damned is only available via download through XboxLive and so is only available to those who bought GTA 4 for the Xbox 360. Microsoft paid Rockstar $50 million to make The Lost and the Damned exclusive to their console as they felt GTA 4 would help boost sales of their console.

The plot of the The Lost and the Damned focuses on a new character and not Niko Bellic. It concerns the plight of Johnny Klebitz, a member of a biker gang called The Lost. His story interweaves with Niko and some missions are similar to Niko’s but are now played out from Johnny’s perspective.

This release is significant for several reasons:1) It fits in with Rockstar assertion that the star of GTA 4 isn’t Niko – it’s Liberty City and

they can use different characters to tell the story of city.2) If The Lost and the Damned is successful you may see other games being released in

Episodes – so rather than whole game be released, they would be released in smaller, most likely downloadable chunks. Publishers could then monitors sales of early ‘episodes’ before funding development of further episodes.

3) The amount of money Microsoft paid for the exclusivity of The Lost and the Damned shows how important GTA is to the games industry. GTA is such a strong brand that it compels consumers to go out and spend £200+ to buy a game console to play it.