GTA6 release date, AI usage, potential gta movie and other info
GTA 6 comes next year, in their 2025 FY, which means between 2024 April and 2025 March (maybe a bit earlier). The ongoing strike doesn't seem to affect the release.
AI will increase efficiency, quality, will help them do things that wasn't done before, won't replace creatives, also won't drive product prices down.
"Do I think that generative AI is going to make hit games? No. Do I think that the need for creative people will go away? Absolutely not. High level work is enhanced in importance."
Potential movie:
At the moment they are not going to finance a movie themselves. They prefer licensing out titles right now. They have a wait and see approach, like how will the Borderlands movie perform. Also, they net much more from games than a potential big hit movie. They will license out other, potentially smaller titles in the future, so no GTA movie in progress/planned.
On the price debacle:
Eric Sheridan/Goldman Sachs:
You've seen a lot of media inflation and increases in subscription prices, broadly in the media landscape. How do you think about striking the balance between pricing and attracting a wider array of audience when you think about the content pipeline you're going to bring to market over the next couple of years to capture the right mix between those two dynamics?
Yeah, I mean, you don't want to go on generalize to our business too much from what's gone on in linear entertainment because the increase in subscription pricing and linear entertainment is really a reflection of the fact that too many streaming services were underpricing to acquire customers and then they realize those customers were not durable and the LTVs were upside down. So they were basically adjusting their pricing to make sure that the LTVs are potentially positive. And I think there's still more pain to come for some of those services. And I can wax eloquent if you want, although it has nothing to do with our business.
In terms of pricing for any entertainment property, but basically the algorithm is the value of the expected entertainment usage, which is to say the per hour value times the number of expected hours plus the terminal value that's perceived by the customer in ownership if the title is actually owned, not say rented or subscribed to. And you'll see that that bears out in every kind of entertainment vehicle. By that standard, our front line prices are still very, very low because we offer many hours of engagement. The value of the engagement is very high.
So I think you know the industry as a whole offers a terrific place to value opportunity for consumers. That doesn't necessarily mean that the industry has pricing power or wants to have pricing power. However, if there is great deal of value offered, and look, it's our strategy here to deliver much more value than what we charge consumers. It's always been our strategy here. We want to make sure the experience is first class. And the nature of the experience is not just the quality of what we offer. It's also what you pay for it. Everyone knows that anecdotally. So that's how we look at it.
There have been precious few price increases in the business. The price increase, for example, to $70 for certain front line products was the first price increase in many years after many generations. So again, I think we offer a terrific value to consumers.
Other bits:
GTA5 sold ~ 190m units
GTA Online is strong, thanks to new seasonal events, content etc.
RDR2 ~57 million units
Tales of the Shire: 2024 release, working with Weta Workshop