Take-Two's stock falls; Analysts predict Red Dead 2 will underperform

[Cutter De Blanc]

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/take-two-stock-tumbles-after-bmo-turns-bearish-on-red-dead-concerns-2019-02-12

 

Turns out obvious corporate greed might not be the best way to sell video games after all

[Jimbatron]

Thanks for sharing.

 

At a guess I’d think this is probably a correction as a result of analysts and investors assuming RDR would do aswell as GTA with micro-transactions. RDR has had seriously impressive sales but there are some idiots who will always have bet the farm on there being more.

 

Its hard to see how it could compete with microtransactions really. In GTA they went full on sc-fi with rocket bikes and flying deloreans to keep the income stream going. I’m not saying RDR Online can’t do well but there’s only so many types of horse you can sell. Perhaps I’m not being imaginative enough, but if there was an obvious solution it would be in front of us already with a big neon sign reading “buy your gold bars from the R* store now!”

 

But this is the way of stock market analysts. They start assuming everything will be bigger and better than the last iteration and don’t let things like specifics and practicalities clutter their tiny minds.

Edited February 12, 2019 by Jimbatron

[Cutter De Blanc]

I like how they cite free to play games as a possible reason for lost revenue

 

Like it couldn't be the complete lack of respect to their playerbase or anything. EA's stock is up, so is Blizzard's.

[Non Funkable Token]

5 minutes ago, Cutter De Blanc said:

I like how they cite free to play games as a possible reason for lost revenue

 

Like it couldn't be the complete lack of respect to their playerbase or anything. EA's stock is up, so is Blizzard's.

"SP games are dead weight, we need to care about online experience even more!" 

 

(People at R* HQ trying to desperately keep their jobs, looking at every direction....)

[Gray-Hand]

3 hours ago, Cutter De Blanc said:

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/take-two-stock-tumbles-after-bmo-turns-bearish-on-red-dead-concerns-2019-02-12

 

Turns out obvious corporate greed might not be the best way to sell video games after all

Greed has nothing to do with it.  RDonline just isn’t a good enough game to spend money (or frankly, even time) on.

 

I have spent $500 worth of shark cards playing GTAonline over the years, and don’t regret it.  I enjoyed the game and it saved me some excessive grinding (although I actually enjoy the grind, by and large).  I also paid for that special gold deal when the RDonline shop opened up - but there is so little to do in the game that I haven’t even found enough things that I want to spend it on.

 

If you play RDonline for a solid weekend, then you have done everything there is to do, maybe with the exception of leveling up some ability cards.  

 

If if someone gave you $50 dollars and told you that you could only spend it on RDonline gold or GTAonline shark cards, what do you think would buy more fun?  I reckon most people would have more fun with buying a weaponised vehicle or a business than they would if the bought some new clothes, a horse or blinged a gun.

 

This game has obvious potential, but we should really be seeing additional gameplay by now.  I’ve played no more than 5 minutes over the last month (to get the free gold, that I haven’t spent) and I know I’m not going to play again until there is an update.

[PapasHota]

26 minutes ago, Gray-Hand said:

I have spent $500 worth of shark cards playing GTAonline over the years

Shame on you.

[Kemasus]

4 hours ago, PapasHota said:

Shame on you.

Hehe ...You should see the amount of money we have spent on RSI Star Citizen.....and its not even out yet

[TheSantader25]

I don't give a f*ck. Investors, Stocks,... All make me sick. They ruined the industry. They can go to hell. I just wanna play good games. 

[The Jungz]

Maybe they should sell me great singleplayer DLCs instead of gold bars or horse skins.

 

That's a way to get me to recurrently spend.

[ShayD]

Anyone of us on the forum here could have predicted that. It doesn't take a genius to know that the player base for a western based open world shooter/RPG would be lower, pair that with the launch of an online "beta" that included MTX and nothing to do. Rockstar has balls pushing in game currency purchases on a beta release, they dont care about their players anymore.

[happygrowls]

3 minutes ago, ShayD said:

Anyone of us on the forum here could have predicted that. It doesn't take a genius to know that the player base for a western based open world shooter/RPG would be lower, pair that with the launch of an online "beta" that included MTX and nothing to do. Rockstar has balls pushing in game currency purchases on a beta release, they dont care about their players anymore.

Fortnite is still in early access and has made billions, if anything having a game in "beta" is R* trying to get more Micro-DLC purchased, following the Fortnite trend.

[Guest Guest176525326]

3 hours ago, ThroatSlasher2 said:

Maybe they should sell me great singleplayer DLCs instead of gold bars or horse skins.

 

That's a way to get me to recurrently spend.

That’s a great idea, we should start a petition. Rockstar has always been number 1 when it comes to listening it’s customers

 

But seriously those days are gone unfortunately... no SP dlc for RDR2 

Edited February 13, 2019 by Guest176525326

[ShayD]

13 minutes ago, happygrowls said:

Fortnite is still in early access and has made billions, if anything having a game in "beta" is R* trying to get more Micro-DLC purchased, following the Fortnite trend.

Yeah but fortnite was and still is free, has had time to expand its reach and player base, isn't rampant with bugs and epic provide constant updates and support to their players eg weekly updates, seasons, challenges, LTM's etc etc they're not even in the same league.

[Jabalous]

I guess part of the decline in the stock price was also due to the money leaving to EA stock after the successful launch of Apex Legends. I actually respect T2 for sticking to what they're doing and not trying to copy the Fortnite success. That in addition to them leaving R* building multi-years massive projects that push story-driven games forward from writing and tech point of view. R* is a proven brand and that's why T2 takes these risks which EA and ATVI don't. 

Edited February 13, 2019 by Jabalous

[Jimbatron]

33 minutes ago, Jabalous said:

I guess part of the decline in the stock price was also due to the money leaving to EA stock after the successful launch of Apex Legends. I actually respect T2 for sticking to what they're doing and not trying to copy the Fortnite success. That in addition to them leaving R* building multi-years massive projects that push story-driven games forward from writing and tech point of view. R* is a proven brand and that's why T2 takes these risks which EA and ATVI don't. 

Absolutely. I want them to stay with high quality open worlds not churn out cheap stuff like Fornite and PUBG even if that has greater mass appeal.

 

Its also worth pointing out GTA Online wasn’t that impressive when it first launched - it was only when Heists arrived it really took off. Granted it might have been better than RDRO but I’d expect them to invest in it heavily over the years.

[JC Hammer]

1 hour ago, Jimbatron said:

Its also worth pointing out GTA Online wasn’t that impressive when it first launched - it was only when Heists arrived it really took off. Granted it might have been better than RDRO but I’d expect them to invest in it heavily over the years.

 

I couldn't disagree more. GTAO got progressively worse from launch with each attempt by R* to nerf money making. 

 

R* designed RDR2 to discourage endless roaming after completing the story mode and drive players to a half-finished RDRO. Looks like its backfiring. GOOD!

[Jimbatron]

28 minutes ago, JC Hammer said:

I couldn't disagree more. GTAO got progressively worse from launch with each attempt by R* to nerf money making. 

 

R* designed RDR2 to discourage endless roaming after completing the story mode and drive players to a half-finished RDRO. Looks like its backfiring. GOOD!

I wasn’t attempting to make a value judgement about whether it was good or bad from a players perspective. Clearly there are different opinions on the matter. This thread is about commercials.

 

The player base and recurrent consumer spending for GTAO didn’t really increase until they added more substantial content.

 

As a side point, having played GTAO there are bits I like and bits I don’t. I can’t agree however that it got harder to to earn money in game over time. At launch you had to continually grind contact missions for weeks to afford a super car. At the end you and 1 friend could do DD act 3 once and buy one straight out. What they did do was add stuff that was more expensive - to get more shark cards out of those who weren’t prepared to wait and play to game to get it.

 

I haven’t actually tried RDRO yet for the record, I’m still having fun with SP.

Edited February 13, 2019 by Jimbatron

[Boozey St John]

41 minutes ago, Jimbatron said:

I wasn’t attempting to make a value judgement about whether it was good or bad from a players perspective. Clearly there are different opinions on the matter. This thread is about commercials.

 

The player base and recurrent consumer spending for GTAO didn’t really increase until they added more substantial content.

 

As a side point, having played GTAO there are bits I like and bits I don’t. I can’t agree however that it got harder to to earn money in game over time. At launch you had to continually grind contact missions for weeks to afford a super car. At the end you and 1 friend could do DD act 3 once and buy one straight out. What they did do was add stuff that was more expensive - to get more shark cards out of those who weren’t prepared to wait and play to game to get it.

 

I haven’t actually tried RDRO yet for the record, I’m still having fun with SP.

Enjoy SP because you honestly ain't missing anything online. 

 

It's a shell of the SP world. 

[TheSantader25]

GTA O was fun 2013-15 I admit. Players were still learning the ropes. Hardcore assholes were almost non existent, you could make friends and find respectable people and it was amazing to see some of the things people made with the content creator. It went downhill after 2016. Not only in its playerbase but also the sh*tty copy/pasted + futuristic content R* kept milking. 

Edited February 13, 2019 by TheSantader25

[Jimbatron]

20 minutes ago, TheSantader25 said:

GTA O was fun 2013-15 I admit. Players were still learning the ropes. Hardcore assholes were almost non existent, you could make friends and find respectable people and it was amazing to see some of the things people made with the content creator. It went downhill after 2016. Not only in its playerbase but also the sh*tty copy/pasted + futuristic content R* kept milking. 

I mostly agree with this. The launch of the original Heists was a definite high point.

 

I thought the DD Heist missions were fun but they could have been better if they’d toned down the sci-fi. Rocket Bikes and Flying Deloreans were unnecessary imho.

Edited February 13, 2019 by Jimbatron

[Jason]

This is not something that is just effecting Take-Two, there's video game company stock prices down across the board, only EA are doing well atm and that is down entirely to Apex Legends.

 

I've seen a fair few analysts predict that 2019 could see some sort of dip across the industry.

[ShayD]

2 hours ago, TheSantader25 said:

It went downhill after 2016. Not only in its playerbase but also the sh*tty copy/pasted + futuristic content R* kept milking. 

Couldn't agree more, the futuristic OP overpriced weaponised vehicles were the turning point for GTAO. Sure, it was cool at first for like a week but stuff like that is made to appeal to younger players. Im assuming most people on the forum would be between the 18-30 age group and would generally be more mature players, you know the ones who emote at you when you're leaving LSC or ponsonbys instead of leaving proximity mines at the door.

[~INDIO~]

11 hours ago, ThroatSlasher2 said:

Maybe they should sell me great singleplayer DLCs instead of gold bars or horse skins.

 

That's a way to get me to recurrently spend.

This. They need to stop ignoring fans, just give us some SP DLC Rockstar. Tell Zelnick to f*ck off.

7 hours ago, ShayD said:

Anyone of us on the forum here could have predicted that. It doesn't take a genius to know that the player base for a western based open world shooter/RPG would be lower, pair that with the launch of an online "beta" that included MTX and nothing to do. Rockstar has balls pushing in game currency purchases on a beta release, they dont care about their players anymore.

They USED to have balls, not anymore. They're just getting pushed around by Take Two

[Lonely-Martin]

Lol. I hope it continues to prove to be harder to monitise to desired levels and really gets the suits squirming.

 

RDRO is again giving me something... A good laugh!

 

I'm hopeful it fails as it stands, the game needs content and options, not gold purchases in a beta, lol. So bloody obvious what they intend of us consumers, and it's not to game.

 

#freeloadersrule!

[~INDIO~]

Dan Houser said he'd make RDR3 if the single player version sold well, right? 

Hope he wasn't just talking about Online doing well

[Lonely-Martin]

9 minutes ago, ~INDIO~ said:

Dan Houser said he'd make RDR3 if the single player version sold well, right? 

Hope he wasn't just talking about Online doing well

I hope single player R* games still come in future too. If anything, seeing that RDR2 sold really well but online isn't making the recurring spending thrive as they expected is only making me hope that R* do get to focus well on a GTA VI/RDR3/other stories heavily and sticking at what they do best.

[The Jungz]

45 minutes ago, Lonely-Martin said:

I hope single player R* games still come in future too. If anything, seeing that RDR2 sold really well but online isn't making the recurring spending thrive as they expected is only making me hope that R* do get to focus well on a GTA VI/RDR3/other stories heavily and sticking at what they do best.

Let's hope so.

 

RDR1 and 2's narrative and characters is something I'll have with me for the rest of my life. No one can take that experience away from me. But playing an endless circuit of battle royale, team deathmatches or races with rocket boosted horses, what am I left with in 10 years from now? Nothing.

 

Singleplayer is what can make gaming a legitimate form of art. It elevates it to levels that, to me, surpass even cinema (and I'm a film buff). Online modes can be really fun but they're just that, entertainment. You don't really get anything other out of it at the end of the day.

[Lonely-Martin]

2 minutes ago, ThroatSlasher2 said:

Let's hope so.

 

RDR1 and 2's narrative and characters is something I'll have with me for the rest of my life. No one can take that experience away from me. But playing an endless circuit of battle royale, team deathmatches or races with rocket boosted horses, what am I left with in 10 years from now? Nothing.

 

Singleplayer is what can make gaming a legitimate form of art. It elevates it to levels that, to me, surpass even cinema (and I'm a film buff). Online modes can be really fun but they're just that, entertainment. You don't really get anything other out of it at the end of the day.

Like any good movie, I still enjoy dropping back to play an older R* title to this day. Of course, the story is well known, but it's still got some magic about those games. 

 

I can watch Terminator 2 once a year, I can play San An and such too. Timeless in a way.

[RJX74]

Quote

Johnson is concerned that while initial sales of "Red Dead Redemption 2" were strong, "buzz around this once highly anticipated game has dissipated markedly."

This feels so true. Honestly I really liked the game, but man if I haven't somewhat moved on. I really want more Red Dead, and don't want to wait another 8 years for the next entry.

Edited February 14, 2019 by RJX74

[Guest Guest176525326]

I think the game has already overperformed tbh, I didn’t expect the first week of sales to be as good as they were. It’s a Wild West game after all. It’s not a GTA. 

 

I dont care about the financial situation of the Red Dead Online.