Rockstar Brings Previously “Exclusive” DLC to PS3 and PC

Did you buy a 360 just so you could buy Episodes from Liberty City, the standalone DLC for Grand Theft Auto IV? I doubt it - you probably bought it for a host of other reasons, like Halo 3, Bayonetta, the fact that you’re fanatically loyal to the 360 for some reason beyond my ken to comprehend, or something. But if you bought it purely because of The Lost and the Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, well, listen to this. Turns out Rockstar are going to be bringing their previously ‘exclusive’ DLC games to the PS3 and the PC on the 30th of March, 2010.

Not much info is available beyond that. Various sites are reporting US Pricing is going to be about $40 for both on a single Blu-ray or about $20 each over the Playstation Network. Speculation is also bouncing around that this is the result of sub-optimal sales of the GTA4 DLC over the 360, which were apparently “A smaller market than initially expected,” according to Rockstar’s CEO Ben Feder.

Hang on a moment, I hear you say. Didn’t Microsoft give Rockstar $50 million for platform exclusivity for GTA4 DLC? Well, yes and no. What Microsoft did was give Rockstar a $50 million advance for development of the GTA4 Episodes, alongside the condition that the Episodes remain 360-exclusive for a period of time. Nobody outside Rockstar and Microsoft know the exact specifics of the deal, but the $50 million wasn’t [i]just[/i] for Platform exclusivity; it was for actual development of the game itself.

Confused? I’ll try and put it another way. When a publisher wants an author to write a book, the publisher advances the author a set amount of money. What that means is, the publisher believes that the book an author creates will create at the least that amount of revenue. In effect, Microsoft believed that Rockstar’s Episodes from Liberty City would generate at least $70 million over XBox Live (Microsoft takes a 30% cut from sales over XBox Live Marketplace). So they gave Rockstar the money to make the episodes, with some kind of condition about exclusivity attached.

What those conditions were is unknown, because as I said no-one outside of Microsoft and Rockstar know the specifics. But is this indiciative of a trend away from platform exclusivity? Certainly once heavily entrenched companies such as Square-Enix are breaking away from their traditional platforms to market games such as FFXIII over multiple consoles. But on the other hand, withdrawal of exclusivity six to twelve months after initial release probably won’t affect sales that much. And on the other, other hand - it’s always good to let more people play good games!

The Lost and the Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony will be available in-stores and over the PlayStation Network and Games for Windows - LIVE on the 30th of March, 2010. No news yet whether it’ll be available over Steam, but it doesn’t seem unlikely.