Grand Theft Auto IV expansion to be sold in proper shops
Ξ November 28th, 2008 | → | ∇ Gadgets |
A listing on the website for US games retailer GameStop reveals that the upcoming expansion for Grand Theft Auto IV, The Lost and Damned, will be available to buy in bricks and mortar retailers.
Now, this might sound like a superb solution for anyone who either doesn’t have an internet connection or has one that’s too slow to embark on such a sizeable download. Oddly enough though, the box itself won’t actually come with anything in it except a code and a poster.
You won’t get a disc – instead, you just get a token card with a unique code that will start the download. Thus you’ll still need LIVE access just the same as everyone else buying it directly.
Frankly, it sounds pretty crazy to us. It must be possible to install an update from a disc, even if you then have to put the original GTA IV disc back in afterwards. That would help out those without a decent net connection.
All this approach seems to do is appease retailers who want a slice of expansion pie. An estimated two to three million copies could be sold, so there’s a sizeable profit to be made, especially if retailers package it together with second hand copies of the game. But that also seems to indicate that Microsoft doesn’t want to trust the LIVE network to sell enough copies of the game on its own. The console maker is believed to have coughed up a $50m for exclusivity rights to the DLC, so we can understand the urgency, if not the lack of physical copies.
GTA IV (via VideoGamer)
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