1. Grand Theft Auto 4
Publisher: Rockstar Games
Developer: Rockstar North
Formats: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC
Release date: PS3, Xbox 360 29/04/08, PC 03/12/08
Grand Theft Auto 4 was released on 29th of April for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles. It
sold 6 million copies worldwide making over $500 million in revenue. This case study looks at how
this success was achieved, how Rockstar created GTA 4, then marketed and distributed the game,
and how the product was consumed.
PRODUCTION
Rockstar Games is vertically integrated company so not only do they publish games (fund, market
and distribute) but they also develop their own games. They have achieved this vertical integration
by purchasing already established development studios, renaming them and making them part of the
Rockstar Games structure.
One such development studio is Rockstar North - formerly an independent company called DMA
Design. Rockstar North are the developers of the Grand Theft Auto series which first started with
Grand Theft Auto for the PC, was released in 1997.
The game had a simple top down presentation and basic graphics but was distinctive in several
ways.
1) Free roaming structure/ ‘sandbox’ game – the gamer was placed within a city and given
freedom to do what they wanted – explore, do missions, cause chaos
2) Dynamic environment – the game was set in a city where the other inhabitants reacted to the
actions of the character e.g. ambulances would turn up to the scene of accidents
3) Parody of America – the setting was a fictional US city that parodied the excesses of
America culture.
4) Mature content – the lead character was a gang member who indulges in a number of
criminal activities: murder, carjacking etc
5) Multi-action game – the game allowed you drive any car, take to the streets on foot and fire
various weapons.
These core concepts have remained consistent throughout the series that has seen many different
developments the most significant of which came in Grand Theft Auto 3 when the game ditched the
top-down 2D presentation in favour of a 3-dimensional world.
So successful had Rockstar North created the 3D GTA that GTA 3 went on to be the biggest selling
game on the PlayStation 2.
Two further games – Vice City and San Andreas – that used the same universe and game engine as
GTA 3, were released to great critical and commercial success.
Rockstar North began developing GTA 4 in November 2004, just after the release of GTA: San
Andreas. Grand Theft Auto 4 differs from the GTA 3, Vice City and San Andreas in the following
ways:
1) It is set in a new rebooted GTA universe so it shares no characters with the GTA 3 universe.
2) It is a contemporary setting unlike the period setting of 80s Miami for Vice City or 90’s
California for San Andreas.
3) The graphics are photo-realistic rather being stylised and cartoony.
4) There are no obvious film references in the story unlike Vice City (Scarface) or San Andrea
(Boyz n da Hood) – Rockstar wanted to take gaming forward by being less reliant on

2. existing ‘texts’.
5) There is little character development in terms of appearance and skills, unlike in San
Andreas when the size, haircut and abilities could be modified.
6) The scale of Niko’s success isn’t on the scale with previous GTA characters – in Vice City
and San Andrea they work their way to the very top, but Niko doesn’t become ‘King of New
York’ at the end of the game.
7) Rockstar used RAGE (Rockstar’s Advanced Game Engine) to create the game.
Game Engine
Developing a game is a long and complicated process that requires a virtual world with its own
look, physics and rules, to be created. To do this a ‘game engine’ is developed that can create all the
necessary elements such as 2D or 3D graphics, physics, animation, sound etc. As this process is
particularly complicated many developers use existing engines used in other games. This then gives
them more time to work on unique feature such as characters, structure and gameplay.
Rockstar previously used Renderware – a game engine developed by UK company Criterion. But
when Criterion were bought by Electronic Arts (a rival publishing company to Rockstar) Rockstar
developed their own game engine and called it RAGE. The first game that used RAGE was
Rockstar Present’s Table Tennis.
Rockstar also used an additional animation engine developed by UK company Natural Motion
called Euphoria to simulate realistic character movement and response.
The use of these two technologies has made GTA 4 the realistic, visually stunning game it is. Of
course it require other new technologies such as new consoles that could run the game (PS3, 360)
and new TV (high definition) to exhibit the game in the quality Rockstar intended.
Music
The game features 18 different radio stations, 3 of which are ‘Talk-Radio’, the rest play licensed
music from artists such as Philip Glass, Black Sabbath, Busta Rhymes, Kanye West. It was reported
that Rockstar paid $5000 per track and such was Rockstar’s determination to get right tracks they
even paid a private detective to track down the relatives of the Skatt Bros. in order to get permission
for one their tracks.
Voice Talent
While previous GTA games had celebrity voice talent such as Michael Masden, Kyle MacLachan,
Frank Vincent (GTA 3),Ray Liotta, Burt Reynolds, Lee Majors (Vice City), Samuel L. Jackson,
Shaun Ryder, Chris Penn (San Andreas) – GTA 4 used relatively unknown actors to voice the major
characters e.g. Niko Bellic was voiced by Michael Hollick.
Delay in the development
GTA 4 had an original release date of 19th October 2007, but on the 2nd August 2007 Take Two
(Rockstar’s parent company) announced that the GTA would not be completed in time. On 24th of
January 2008, Rockstar confirmed the new release date as 29th April 08.
The official explanation for the delay: ‘We all recognize that perfecting the game is vital and I can
assure everyone it will be worth the wait. We owe it to the game’s millions of fans, to our dedicated
development team, and to our shareholders to make sure that Grand Theft Auto IV is a
groundbreaking gaming experience that takes maximum advantage of next generation technology.”
However, Jeronimo Barrera, President of Product Development at Rockstar explains that
developing for the PS3 was a factor in the delay: "It's really no surprise to anybody that the PS3 was
definitely a contributing factor to that.’

3. Impact of the delay
It was bad news for both Sony and Microsoft (manufacturers of the PS3 and 360 respectively) as
they had both hoped the release of GTA 4 would drive the sales of their consoles. It was particularly
bad news for Microsoft as they had paid Rockstar $50 million to ensure that future episodic content
would be exclusive to the Xbox 360.
Microsoft’s thinking was that consumer would choose to play GTA 4 on the 360 rather than the PS3
(and so buy a 360 rather than a PS3) as the new content would only be available on the 360.
For other games publishers it meant a restructuring of their schedules as many publishers avoided
releasing any products around the time of release of GTA 4 as they thought consumers would only
be spending money on Rockstars product.
The delay helped some games such as Activision’s Call of Duty 4 which went on to be the biggest
selling game for the 360 in the US between Nov 2007 and Jan 2008, an achievement that would
have been unlikely if GTA 4 had been released the month before.
The change of release date also affected other media industries for instance some film companies
had avoided releasing films in that week. It was reported several Hollywood executives blamed the
arrival of Halo 3 (X360) for a 27% drop in cinema ticket sales in the same month.
Many experts feared that GTA 4’s release in April 08 would effect the revenue for the Iron Man
film, however as the film went on to gross $98,618,668 in is opening weekend, these fears were a
little unfounded.
DISTRIBUTION
Grand Theft Auto 4 was distributed in a conventional way for the games industry using high street
retail, online retail and digital delivery to ensure consumers could purchase it easily.
Retail
Specialist electronic and gaming shops: Game, GameStation, Curries,
Entertainment retail stores: HMV, Zavvi, Fopp
Supermarkets: Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys
Online retail
Amazon, play.com, gameplay.com
Publisher’s online store
Rockstargames.com/warehouse
Online content delivery system
Downloaded for PC (AND PC ONLY) from Steam.
Where it wasn’t available
PlayStation Store (the PS3’s online store) or XboxLive Marketplace (the 360’s online store).
GTA 4 was not available to download for the console as a game the size of GTA 4 (in terms of
data) is not suitable for these services.
OnLive
This is a new service that is currently being tested in US, that uses broadband to stream games onto
consumers PCs. The idea is that the consumer would no longer need to buy a physical copy of the
game or need a specific machine (console) to play the game.
At the moment a game the size of GTA 4 could not be distributed in this manner as broadband
speeds are not quick enough and the demand on the servers that would house the game would be too
great. However, if OnLive is successful it could be another means of distribution – one that would

4. cut out retailers out of the chain of distribution and possibly publishers.
MARKETING
‘We were more heavily influenced by companies working in other media which had a sense of style
that we admired - record labels, obviously, and clothing companies, which were obsessed with
details and with an integrity between design, product and marketing. This is something that has
always been very important to us: that the product, its packaging and public presentation should feel
like the same thing, which is why we have always created all of our advertising materials ourselves,
from TV creative to posters to promotional materials.’
Dan Houser, 2002
Rockstar have always been particularly strong at marketing as one of their main aims was to create
Rockstar Games as a cool and recognisable brand. As the above quote shows they create all their
marketing and advertising in house rather than getting external agencies to do it. The idea is to have
the same people who are creative forces behind the product in control how it is presented to the
public – ‘integrity between design, product and marketing’.
For Grand Theft Auto 4 they used a number of strategies:
(for more detail see the Marketing Powerpoint on the blog)
Conventional Marketing
Advertising in print, TV, online and billboards
Large mural painted in New York
Point of sale promotions
If you pre-ordered GTA 4 with amazon you got a free GTA 4 licence plate.
Special collectors editions were available that came in a GTA 4 duffel bag and safety deposit box
Use of the press
‘Drip-feeding’ information to specialist press to ensure interest was maintained up to release and
that not too much information was given away that it would spoil the game for the consumer.
Exclusive content given to magazines in return for covers.
Interviews and coverage organised with the mainstream press. Eg. “Is GTA 4 Art” in the Observer
Magazine.
Viral Marketing
Emailing the address on the Wanted posters, teaser trailers advertising Liberty City Police
Department and in-game cars.
Spoof websites
Guerilla marketing
Wanted posters, stickers around New York City.
Building relationships with fansites
GTA as a hardcore and fanatical following and since the very first GTA fans have created website
to post news, reviews and information about the games. Rockstar communicate and support these
sites by giving them exclusive assets (screenshots, wallpapers) and access to the game.
For GTA 4 several fansites were sent new assets and information, regular gifts such as promotional
T-shirts and stickers. Then just before the launch the editors of the fansites were taken on an all-
expenses trip to New York to play GTA 4 before its release.

5. EXHIBITION
(See spider-diagram on the media-blog)
Exhibition has a lot of crossover with both Marketing and Consumption as it concerns where the
game is displayed, shown and seen.
The most obvious place where GTA 4 is exhibited is the consumer’s home as a PC, PS3 or
Xbox360 is needed to play the game and a HD TV is need to display the image.
This is in contrast to many popular games that are designed for handheld machines such as the PSP,
DS and mobile phone which can be played/exhibited anywhere. Also it’s not available for the Wii.
So Rockstar are have a specific idea about where they would like it exhibited as they want the
consumer to be able to appreciate the amazing visual quality of the game and richness of gameplay.
(It is important to note that Rockstar have created a GTA experience for the Nintendo DS in the
form of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars which uses the top-down view that was last used for
GTA 2 – so they are by no means ignoring the handheld market.)
There are, however, many other ways GTA 4 is exhibited:
Shops – in-store demo pods
Youtube – mission walkthroughs, reviews, stunts
Magazines – mission walkthroughs, reviews, follow-up feature on GTA’s secrets
Gaming cafes – where gamers go to play GTA 4 online
Television – adverts, news features
Looking at the above list you can see the crossover with Marketing as many reasons for exhibiting
the game is for the purpose of advertising and promoting the game. Then there’s the different ways
in which the game is consumed which leads to the different ways it is exhibited.
CONSUMPTION
This section examines what happens when the consumer has managed to get hold of a copy of
Grand Theft Auto 4 and the different ways in which gamers experience the game.
Exploiting the GTA’s freedom
GTA 4 is often called a ‘sandbox’ game as the idea is that all the tools for having fun are provided
for the gamer, but it is up to the gamer how they are used.
The result of this is that everybody will play GTA 4 in their own unique way.
For example: some will just cause mayhem, some will tackle all the story missions first, others the
side missions, other will just explores, other will go just go bowling.
Then there’s all the other variables to consider – which gun/car/radio station/clothes you allow Niko
to use – these will all be different depending on who plays the game.
Parody of America
Remember GTA is written and developed by Brits – so much of the humour is British (which
explains the reliance on innuendo) and its vision of New York focuses on the excesses in US
culture. This means UK consumers will appreciate much of GTA4’s content in different way to US
consumers.
Modding GTA
Gaming Mods (short for Modifications) are the work of fans (or developers) who understand the
way a game is coded enough to change certain factors to alter the game.

6. It could be something as simple as changing costumes or environment textures, all the way through
to changing the structure and objectives of the game.
The PC versions of games are the easiest to modify so there is vibrant mod-culture in the PC
gaming world and one of the most popular games to modify is Grand Theft Auto 4. An examples of
GTA mods is a Spider-Man-Mod where Niko has been given a superhero costume and superhuman
jumping powers.
Modding is a inventive way of consuming GTA 4 – taking the game and using it to create a unique
gaming experience that wasn’t intended by the original developers.
Use of the video editor
The PC version of GTA 4 a replay editor was included allows players to record and edit game clips,
videos can then be uploaded to Rockstar's Social Club website. Fans have used this as a tool to
make their own movies about life in Liberty City.
Check out Kings of Liberty - The Chase is On, on youtube
And others at https://tv.rockstargames.com
GTA 4: The Lost and Damned
The Lost and the Damned is an episodic expansion pack for GTA 4 and is the first in expansion
pack since London 1961 was released in 1999. An expansion pack is an ‘add-on’ to an existing
videogame usually adding new weapons, mission and extra characters. As it is only an ‘add-on’
expansion packs need the original game to function – consequently you can’t play The Lost and the
Damned without owning GTA4.
The Lost and the Damned is only available via download through XboxLive and so is only available
to those who bought GTA 4 for the Xbox 360. Microsoft paid Rockstar $50 million to make The
Lost and the Damned exclusive to their console as they felt GTA 4 would help boost sales of their
console.
The plot of the The Lost and the Damned focuses on a new character and not Niko Bellic. It
concerns the plight of Johnny Klebitz, a member of a biker gang called The Lost. His story
interweaves with Niko and some missions are similar to Niko’s but are now played out from
Johnny’s perspective.
This release is significant for several reasons:
1) It fits in with Rockstar assertion that the star of GTA 4 isn’t Niko – it’s Liberty City and
they can use different characters to tell the story of city.
2) If The Lost and the Damned is successful you may see other games being released in
Episodes – so rather than whole game be released, they would be released in smaller, most
likely downloadable chunks. Publishers could then monitors sales of early ‘episodes’ before
funding development of further episodes.
3) The amount of money Microsoft paid for the exclusivity of The Lost and the Damned shows
how important GTA is to the games industry. GTA is such a strong brand that it compels
consumers to go out and spend £200+ to buy a game console to play it.