Take Two/Rockstar Links With Sega Sports, Reveals Upcoming Roster

Thanks to GameGossip for its round-up of Take Two/Rockstar Games' recently announced financial results, as the publisher reported "net loss for the quarter [of] $14.6 million", but made significant announcements in the statement including "letter of intent entered into between Take-Two and Sega Corporation to co-publish and exclusively distribute on a worldwide basis Sega's ESPN Videogames." Elsewhere, it was noted that "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for the PlayStation 2 has sold approximately 300,000 copies as of the week ending May 30, 2004, making it one of the most successful debuts of a Western video game in Japan", and some less well-known forthcoming titles from various Take Two divisions include "Spy vs. Spy for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox [and] Ford Mustang: 40th Anniversary Edition for the PC, PlayStation 2, and Xbox."

Sega + Rockstar

[Anonymous Coward]

Why stop at just ESPN sports franchises? I'd like to see a cooperative Rockstar/Sega Sammy game developed...

Manhunt 2: The Continued Adventures of Alex Kidd
Vectorman: Revolver
Grand Theft Auto X, feat. Rez Trance Vibrator

Re:

[account_deleted]

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Re:Sega + Rockstar

[AvantLegion]

>> Grand Theft Auto X, feat. Rez Trance Vibrator

Wouldn't that be "Grand Theft Autoerotic"?

suck

[cultobill]

(fp?)

I'm surprised by this, as the GTA series did/does really well. The more recent games from Rockstar (Manhunt) are less impressive, but I thought they still did well enough to keep the company in the black.

Re:suck

[cultobill]

I failed it.

Re:

[account_deleted]

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Re:suck

[Slyght]

No, it's not too much like Hitman, except for the stealth element. In Manhunt, your goal is basically to get to Point A to Point B without getting killed, which involves killing others along the way. Hitman is more "Kill Person A, Kill Person B, Get Out". So basically, the goal in Manhunt is to survive, the goal in Hitman is to assassinate.

Once you get past the novelty of Manhunt's gore, there really isn't much to it. There are much better stealth-action games on the market.

Game industry has no balls

[superpulpsicle]

The gaming industry fears taking any type of chance. Every damn game is surrounded by a cazillion dollar budget. For every product that fails to do decent the company sinks to hell. So every damn game is either a clone of a successful one or a sequel to a previous generation game.

People who bitch about manhunt, I thought that actually seem original enough to buy. The industry has no room for anything but sports games now.

Re:Game industry has no balls

[psyco484]

It's not about not having balls, though I agree game innovation has been slowing creatively. There have been a lot of sequels, a lot of movie games (which rarely are worth looking at), and a lot of the same stuff with prettier graphics. But guess what, people keep buying them, even if they're not new ideas. This is not a bad thing.

Take a look at this case from a business perspective, it can be applied to more than just this example: GTA3 sold incredibly well. It was a new idea in that the previous GT

New lineup

[Anonymous Coward]

With Rockstar's edge, and Sega Sports' license for professional atheletes, here are a few predictions for future games:

Manhunt 2 - Search for the Raiders lost talent!

"Law" Breakers - GTA style game starring NFL cornerback Ty Law

NFL 2006: Football with weapons!

Grand Theft Auto: L.A. Lakers (including Bonus Mission, make sure you get the suitcase to Darryl Straberry before the clock runs out!)

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[account_deleted]

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Stupid big companies

[BortQ]

And I would like to announce the immediate continuation of Sillysoft's existence. We continue to have a profit of greater than 100 dollars! A fine achievement.

Perhaps we should challenge these big boys to a duel?!?!?!

Could this actually help Sega's ESPN franchise?

[Painaxl]

I wonder, will this actually allow me to find ESPN games in the friggin' stores? Seriously, I've been a fan of the Sega franchises for sports since the DC and it gets annoying not being able to find copies in the major stores. Sometimes, places like Target won't even have the ESPN sports game, but rather EA (natch), Sony and Acclaim. Maybe Take Two/Rockstar can provide a distribution boost that will actually help.

Re:Could this actually help Sega's ESPN franchise?

[UconnGuy]

ESPNvideogames.com [espnvideogames.com] sells them and is currently offering free shipping. I know it's not the same as having it right away, but the free shipping should be a plus if you can't find the games in stores.

Re:Could this actually help Sega's ESPN franchise?

[Acidic_Diarrhea]

Why are you buying games at Target? Specialty shops like Gamestop and EB carry all ESPN games and have price drops in a reasonable timeframe. As far as I can tell, Target sells their games at $50 until they don't have any games left to sell.

Budget football?

[h0mer]

I saw a blurb on IGN (I subscribe, sorry for no link) that had stuff about a rumor that ESPN 2K5 will be released at the low, low price of $19.99!

This might work to get the customers that the ESPN franchise needs (the indifferent customer who buys games at Best Buy on a whim). All informed people already know that ESPN is much better than Madden. ;)

This could be the start of a new marketing technique, similar to manufacturer rebates. A game company publishes a new franchise that needs to gain a foothold,

Re:Budget football?

[SuperMo0]

If you got the first one for $19.99, why would you want to get the second one for $30 more? It wouldn't look like a rebate on the first game, it would look like a price hike on the second one, and that would hurt sales on it. They'd most likely have to keep it down low if they started down low.

Spy vs Spy!!!

[crashnbur]

It's about time the 128-bit gaming market picked this up. I can't wait to see it on my television screen!

That is all.