Wait a Second...

[LordDastardly]

GTA IV was more than worth the wait and anyway, I got GTA IV the day it came out and am still playing it frequently now - it will more than tide me over until GTA V even if that is 3 or 4 years away!

 

Quality not Quantity is the key phrase here. SA has sold approx. 18 million copies in it's lifetime whereas GTA IV has already sold 15 million on the other hand, the reason CoD is so popular is because it appeals to the masses where GTA, while popular has not so much of a casual audience.

 

Anyway, I know people who have bought their 10 year olds CoD: MW2, "it is just shooting bad guys. What is to worry", (although I'm sure their kid forgot to mention the airport level) whereas GTA: IV gets: "OMFG! You can drink drive, you can shoot innocents! OMFG".

 

The type of game is a large factor.

 

EDIT: Unlike Emotion98.3 I think SR2 was good but it still felt rushed, unfinished and it was in a completely different league to IV. To put it into perspective the scale would have to have a range of negative infinity to positive infinity with SR2 being about 0, GTA IV being off the scale (which would be impossible for any other game considering it is infinity) and CoD about -1000. (In my opinion of course).

 

Edited March 16, 2010 by LordDastardly

[WF the Hobgoblin]

An awesome developer (IW) and a crap one (Treyarch)

Not to start a flame war or anything but you've got that the wrong way round buddy. MW2 is sh*te compared to WaW, a lot less brutal and less PC support.

 

Enough off-topic fanboyism from me now.

 

Activision have two new developers working on two different CoD titles as well as Trey and IW. Sledgehammer Games and an unnamed studio.

Like I said, I like WAW but MW2 is miles better imo. The only thing WAW has got going for it is:

 

Gore

Gary Oldman and Kiefer Sutherland

Zombies

 

I still thought MW1 was much better than WaW and for the most part I think MW2 > MW1.

 

I was thinking of the abysmal COD 3 when I said they were crap. Also I wasn't impressed when they dragged the series back into the tired realm of WW2.

[Algonquin Assassin]

 

When you say this though, I didn't think IV was worth the wait at all, in fact, if it was not for multiplayer, I'd still be playing through the San An story again.  I played it through when it first came out, was kind of underwhelmed with the story and characters, and played through it again recently (a few months ago) for the trophies.

 

Well I can't speak for everyone (Not that I was trying to anyway). GTA IV was more than worth the wait for me despite its shortcomings.

[BULLETSP0NGE]

If They can put out a Call of Duty every year and sell millions, then why can't Rockstar do the same? Or even every other year? As long as its GTA, it has the R* logo, and I have the right console, I'll buy it. I'm sure others would too.

Ok, I'm quoting the original post, no one has pointed out the contradiction.

 

Call of Duty has a yearly release, yes, because they have TWO studios working on the game, each studio has two years at a time to work with.

 

Infinity Ward - COD2, COD4, MW2

Treyarch - COD3, COD:WAW, COD due out this year

Now they have a third studio, its first game will be out 2011.

[WF the Hobgoblin]

When you say this though, I didn't think IV was worth the wait at all, in fact, if it was not for multiplayer, I'd still be playing through the San An story again.  I played it through when it first came out, was kind of underwhelmed with the story and characters, and played through it again recently (a few months ago) for the trophies.

 

Well I can't speak for everyone (Not that I was trying to anyway). GTA IV was more than worth the wait for me despite its shortcomings.

It's personal preferences. I think IV was definitely worth the wait and much better than SA. And I don't even play the multiplayer that much. The MP was probably one of the more disappointing things about IV imo.

[Mokrie Dela]

GTA IV was more than worth the wait and anyway, I got GTA IV the day it came out and am still playing it frequently now

Hear hear.

 

Although i'm ready for a New gta. IV is starting to get a bit old now, i'm turning to other games to tide me over...

Slightly off topic, but i find TLAD quite boring when not playing storylines....

 

@Saints row. It was a good game, my biggest problem(s) were:

 

The game looks so plasticy and fake. IV looked awesome and realistic. Saints row looked like it was made with dolls

Phsyics, both cars and world physics.

 

Mind you comparing GTA and Saints row is like comparing an Apache helicopter with a shopping trolley.

[LordDastardly]

 

Mind you comparing GTA and Saints row is like comparing an Apache helicopter with a shopping trolley.

Best comparison of the two series in history!

 

^That is my new sig if you don't mind.

[Ats.]

No, no and no. R* doesn't care about income as much as these COD developers. They announce their COD's every freaking year. For me, personally it's getting annoying. I've never liked COD very much. It feels to me that R* makes game with more mm..."love".

[GTAIV-NewYork]

Call of Duty makes me sick. It's the most repetetive, simple minded game series out there. It really does appeal to the masses. Masses of 13 year old boys who don't call a story engaging unless it involves killing people every few seconds. Now I know GTA has a LOT of killing in it's stories, but there is so much more than killing. GTA has racing, dating, stunts, parachuting, so much more. What else does Call of Duty have without the killing part?! Call of Duty, best summed up, is the biggest malignant cancerous tumour in video gaming today. GTA is a rare novelty. There is nothing quite like it.

[SammiiDoogles]

Although, saying that; Vice City was an absolute masterpiece and took only 9 months to make.

Bar's been raised considerably since then. VC had a small map with a good chunk of it being beach and while the storyline was engaging, it wasn't particularly original. I like the idea of getting a new proper GTA every 2-3 years with some DLC and handheld stuff in between.

 

Rockstar ain't no EA, and thank God.

Oh know I know, I understand that.

I'm just saying it shows they can do stuff well relatively quickly, I wasn't expecting a new one in that time haha

[zgriggs]

Sorry if it has been said before, but CoD is published by Activision Blizzard, 7000 employees and $4.28B in calendar 2009. GTA is published by Rockstar Games, which is part of Take2 Interactive who has 2200 employees and ~$1B in revenue in fiscal 2009. So it is fair to say this, Activision has more resources to do a game every year than Rockstar does and furthermore it takes more than 50 hours to do 100% in GTA IV. Compare that with the 15-20 hours to finish the completely linear and closed off CoD titles, which has been stated before is a much smaller game in comparison.

 

Sure, if Rockstar devoted 100% of their time to developing GTA then maybe they could do a game every 11-13 months, but as they are also doing LA Noir, Red Dead Redemption, Agent, Max Payne 3 and Bully 2, plus anything else they haven't announced yet. Notice though that when the city remained pretty much the same for the two DLC's they really only had to work on NEW assets, such as the bikes, music, weapons, mission scripts and character frames. The biggest part of the show was done already, Liberty City, most of the vehicles, some character models, police AI, civilian AI, animations and the graphics engine and lighting stuff... these are the things that take so long. So if you didn't mind having a new GTA that was set in the same city and only lasted 10 hours, sure they could do a new one every year, but then wouldn't you get bored, wouldn't people complain that they were paying $10-20 every 8-12 months to get parts of a game they "already bought". See almost every argument against DLC/Expansion packs that has ever been had for examples.

[Ænemy]

CoD is based on multiplayer anyway. GTA is relying heavily on the single-player game where there is a really lengthy and fun story unlike the boring multiplayer of fragging.

[psycs-x]

It's been mentioned a coulpe of times but CoD is developed by Treyarch, Infinity Ward, and now, Sledgehammer Games so one would assume that there's a 2-3 year development cycle. If you don't get what I mean, IW released a game (Modern Warfare 2) last year and don't have to worry about deadlines until 2012-ish (when their next game is expected, not doomsday ) hence allowing a smoother game while Activision still make money with a new CoD every year. GTA on the other hand is solely developed by Rockstar who also have other games to work on (not saying Treyarch/IW don't make games that aren't CoD) and want to have all their games be well developed so they need the longer development cycle. Personally I don't mind waiting another year or two for a well developed game than have a rushed, buggy game every year.

[Mokrie Dela]

don't have to worry about deadlines until 2012-ish (when their next game is expected, not doomsday )

I laughed

[LordDastardly]

If EA every buys out Take Two and tries to turn IV into the next CoD who's with me for going to the headquarters and turning them into the next Die Hard movie until they give us back our beloved R*?

[RJHarris91]

If They can put out a Call of Duty every year and sell millions, then why can't Rockstar do the same? Or even every other year? As long as its GTA, it has the R* logo, and I have the right console, I'll buy it. I'm sure others would too.

Perhaps because there's not a big enough fan base? After all, and let's be honest here, we are all sorta gta fanboys, are we not?

[zgriggs]

If EA every buys out Take Two and tries to turn IV into the next CoD who's with me for going to the headquarters and turning them into the next Die Hard movie until they give us back our beloved R*?

If EA were to buy Take2 then I'd be with you there... but since they have stopped attempting to do a takeover then I don't think we have much to worry about, especially since Jack Thompson is no longer allowed to practice what he calls law.

[Nova69_7]

If EA every buys out Take Two and tries to turn IV into the next CoD who's with me for going to the headquarters and turning them into the next Die Hard movie until they give us back our beloved R*?

You can count me in too! If GTA turned into an annual thing then the quality would surely dilute and we would not have as much time to get to know the characters and stuff. I'll be right there on the front lines with ya brother!

[Reconite]

Annualized games = drop in quality

It really depends on the developer of said games.

 

And WaW was better than MW2

[d0mm2k8]

Rockstar isn't just one developer don't forget.

 

Developers of upcoming games:

L.A. Noire - Team Bondi

Red Dead Redemption - R* San Diego

Agent - R* North

Max Payne 3 - R* Vancouver

EFLC PC and PS3 - R* Toronto

 

If they wanted they could have R* North chug out a low quality GTA every year and have other R*s make other titles.

But they want to make quality games as well as money.

 

Activision on the other hand...

 

 

[LordDastardly]

 

Rockstar isn't just one developer don't forget.

 

Developers of upcoming games:

L.A. Noire - Team Bondi

Red Dead Redemption - R* San Diego

Agent - R* North

Max Payne 3 - R* Vancouver

EFLC PC and PS3 - R* Toronto

 

If they wanted they could have R* North chug out a low quality GTA every year and have other R*s make other titles.

 

Yes, but while R* North does the majority of GTA work, the other headquarters do help such as the American headquarters helping with New York/Liberty City.

[GunnyBOS]

There is new games in the Grand Theft Auto series. Chinatown Wars? EFLC???

 

Also, GTA Vice City and GTA San Andreas were in the GTA III era.

[scarp1996]

Putting this out there, COD3(2006),5(2008),the upcoming installment and 'Finest Hour' and 'Big Red One' are made by Treyarch, were as COD1(2003),2(2005),4 or MW1(2007)and MW2(2009) are made by Infinity Ward who take more time to make there games while Treyarch releases whatever they made to please fans.

[d0mm2k8]

 

Putting this out there, COD3(2006),5(2008),the upcoming installment and 'Finest Hour' and 'Big Red One' are made by Treyarch, were as COD1(2003),2(2005),4 or MW1(2007)and MW2(2009) are made by Infinity Ward who take more time to make there games while Treyarch releases whatever they made to please fans.

MW2 was rushed garbage made to appeal to the masses with almost NO change from MW1 except for the over filled (and awful) multi-player.

 

WaW and MW1 were the heights of the series because they had solid FPS gameplay.

 

They may be generic, yet they offer epic solo campaigns that tend to be shocking and emotional at times and the multi-player has a near perfect balance.

 

WaW uses the same engine as MW1 and is often ridiculed for doing so but I don't see it as a bad thing.

It has the similar style play of MW1 but the atmosphere is a lot more serious and gruesome than MW1 whilst using an entirely different setting too.

 

Just putting this out there...

[Dragonex100]

You have a good point but cod I a mega franchise:one comapany owns it, actision, while there is two producers;infinity ward and treyarch making a game each year. If that didn't make any sense, think aboit it this way, iw made cod2 in 2005, then released cod 4 in 2007. Cod 3 was made in between that time by teyarch and was released at 2006. So really it takes them two years to make a cod game, which is only a little less the time in between gta's. And if rs didn't spend all Thier time whoring ctw on every portable console known to man, let alone make ginourmous dlcs for gta4, this section very well could be gta V instead of gtaV? Just sayin.

[Guanxi]

With all due respect there has been a new gta release more or less every year since GTA3 with the exception of 2003 (manhunt) and 2007 (gta iv delay). R* Leeds have taken on the mantle of surrogate b-studio (e.g. Treyarch, 343 industries, Obsidian) for the gta franchise exquisitely since their inception albeit in an unconventional way - regardless of whether or not you choose to acknowledge their works along side R* North's.

 

I'm happy with this arrangement because it allows R* all the time they need to progress gaming as an artistic medium, while Leeds with their focus on portable titles always bring something completely different to the table.

 

Developers with EA, Activision & Ubisoft stickers on their boxes are under enormous pressure to churn out their wares on mass like Zimbabwe dollars and I imagine I'm not the only one finds it a somewhat disgusting wilful distain for gaming in general and the people who buy and produce their products. Heads of Infinity Ward had enough of Activision's bullsh*t.

 

Edit: In the end COD is just going to be another casualty of Activision-Blizzard - Guitar Hero, or Tony Hawk, etc - they let 'em stagnate for years while milking 'em to the point of near death until the market for them stagnates and then evaporates and they are still trying to milk them and it's just sad.

 

I hope this never happens to the gta franchise.

Edited March 25, 2010 by Guanxi

[jf6293]

Technically the DLCs are new games, same map yea, but different characters, storyline, some new guns

COD vs GTA

COD is all online, gets old too quick, not many people buy it for the single player, so they have to keep making new games in order to be successful

GTA is a lot single player, some online, but theres a ton to do, you can fully control your guy, where he(or she, I dunno, could happen) goes, with lots of side missions as well as the main storyline, it takes longer to complete, and is still fun to play no matter how old it is, look at VC and SA

[Treble20]

 

If They can put out a Call of Duty every year and sell millions, then why can't Rockstar do the same? Or even every other year? As long as its GTA, it has the R* logo, and I have the right console, I'll buy it. I'm sure others would too.

each call of duty is worked on for 2 years, with infinity ward and treyarch taking it in turns.

 

couple this with the fact that a GTA game contains at least twice as much content as a COD game does and you have yourself a 3/4 year development cycle minimum for a good quality GTA title, the next GTA is a big one, it will surely steak a claim for best game of all time...

Edited March 28, 2010 by Treble20