GTA MMO would be a profitable venture, analyst suggests

by Seraphina Brennan May 29th 2009 at 6:30PM

Filed under: At a glance, News items, Opinion, Crime, Rumors

In a recent set of statements to Gamasutra, Mike Hickey, an analyst with Janco Partners, brought up the profitability of an MMO set within the Grand Theft Auto franchise.

While Hickey notes that success would only be possible if Take-Two partnered up with another company who had a well designed infrastructure and MMO experience, the whole paragraph is certainly a nod in the direction of online crime games at large -- a genre relatively untapped in the MMO landscape.

Certainly a Grand Theft Auto MMO would be the new gorilla of the online space, one can't easily forget about the stylized and anticipated offering from Crackdown developer Realtime Worlds, All Points Bulletin. A GTA MMO would certainly be nice, but APB will certainly be setting the bar for all upcoming crime MMOs, regardless of a GTA entry into the scene.

Tags: all-points-bulletin, apb, crackdown, gamasutra, grand-theft-auto, grand-theft-auto-iv, gta-mmo, realtime-worlds, rockstar, rockstar-games, take-two, take-two-interactive

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

CCon99 said on 7:23PM 5-29-2009

A GTA MMORPG could be a whole lot of fun, especially if you could choose between being Law Enforcement or a Gangster. If a Gangster broke the law, they would then flag themself for any Law Enforcement characters to come after them.

Tyranor said on 7:48PM 5-29-2009

Damn, this guy deserves a promotion. This is obviously the result of intense profound analysis and not common sense.

Vulturion said on 8:08PM 5-29-2009

My goodness!
An extension of a critically-acclaimed kazillion-selling videogame franchise would be commerically successful?
Knock me down with a feather - I'm shocked by this bold punditry!

UltimateQ said on 9:15PM 5-29-2009

I can see it now.

Scenario One: Save up, Buy That Sweet New Car, Get Car Jacked.

Scenario Two: Pick the "Hooker" class, Sell Services, Get Killed and Have Your Money Stolen Back.

Russell Clarke said on 9:53PM 5-29-2009

Heh, hooker class. Make love, not war. Could be these guys' dream...

http://www.massively.com/2009/05/28/mmo-pacifism-expanding-combat-alternative-systems/

crsh said on 11:33PM 5-29-2009

GTA MMO? Yes please!

Rhaegar said on 12:24AM 5-30-2009

I think that a lot of the draw of the GTA series is that you can do anything you want. This is clearly not the case with the current generation of MMOs. Either it wouldn't be any fun or it would be griefer paradise.

Myria said on 2:17AM 5-30-2009

I'd bet the farm on the latter. It's pretty much the inevitable result of any "it's fun to be a sociopath!" MMO system. About the only way any of them are going anywhere is if they start paying people to be professional victims for their emotionally stunted customers.

Unless they vastly reworked the formula, a GTA MMO would have all the long term success of Auto Assault.

ScytheNoire said on 3:11AM 5-30-2009

GTA MMO, not if it's as boring and dull as the past few GTA's. Not to mention buggy and didn't even work on the PC properly.

Thanks, but no thanks. Rockstar does console games, and I don't play console games.

But I do love the comments here, idiots get paid big money to say what the rest of us have been saying for years. Obviousness isn't so obvious to corporate exec's, obviously.

Adric Antfarm said on 4:18PM 5-30-2009

Not until you loose that M rating kids

You think Second Life age verification is unpleasant, this is a claymore mine in your face.

First time mom comes home and junior is backing over a ho the lawsuit wave starts to never end.

Not that this stops anyone now. I can't tell you how many 9 year olds have taught me new words on GTA IV multi-player (in several languages). Mom and Dad need to administer the Ritalin more regularity.