Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

Things haven’t been all that bright for Take Two since after San Andreas hit the streets. Sure sales were fabulous for the game I consider the pinnacle of the GTA franchise, but that’s had to carry it quite a while. Its had a rough time with its horrid handling of Hot Coffee, its downward-sliding financials, the long SEC investigations, and a pair of rehashed GTA’s that dispensed with the gameplay advances of San Andreas and rightfully got a lukewarm to cold reception from consumers in return. Cap it all off with a major management shakeup and you’re not surprised to read analysts thinking out loud that Rockstar should delay GTA IV to polish it up and give it more retail breathing room than the crowded fall season would allow it.

Into these difficult times walks Microsoft — the Daddy Warbucks of the console world — who it has been revealed has agreed to hand over $50 million to Take Two in return for two chunks of Xbox 360-exclusive episodic content. The PS3 will not get this additional content — something PS3 owners should be used to by now and something that incidentally may have more to do with Sony not knowing how to talk to developers than money. Has Microsoft saved the day?

An implosion of Take Two could still happen, but the odds of it happening are greatly reduced. After a quick acknowledgement of the upcoming payouts for additional content Take Two clammed up tight on the matter, and neither they nor Microsoft would talk about it again.

The number alone is enough to give us pause. Sure, the GTA franchise was one of the top selling M-rated franchises of the last generation of systems, but GTA IV is a new beginning on a new set of systems — it could fail miserably — and that becomes fifty million bucks for two add-ons for a failed sequel. This shows more than a pay-anything-just-do-it desperation on Microsoft’s part to make their console brand be linked with the GTA franchise. This also shows Microsoft knows how to make a strategic investment in a very popular developer and publisher. Buying $50m of influence or paying that money to stabilize Take Two while they’re reeling from management shakeups and low profitability ensures that when Microsoft calls Take Two, they will not go to voice mail.

What kind of long-term relationship could this money build? Maybe the kind that might lead Rockstar to hand one or more of their key franchises over to Microsoft if things get rough. You might consider it unthinkable for managers to throw a key product under the bus to keep the company alive, but when was the last time you saw an entirely new management team for a company do things strictly to preserve the long-term health of that company?

Via Evil Avatar, Slashdot, and Joystiq.