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Tag: Grand Theft Auto
[NM] Rockstar North Paid No Taxes, Earned Tax Relief
It’s hard to look at Rockstar North and not see dollar signs (or pound signs) around the massive success of Grand Theft Auto V, but this week’s news is sure to set some fires in more than a few bellies as the company’s finances come into more scrutiny.
TaxWatch UK a thinktank that tracks business earnings reported this week that Rockstar North has made an estimated $5 billion in profit over the last six years. Despite this massive amount of profit, the company still determined that it deserved tax relief and claimed £42 million between 2015 and 2017, or 19% of all government credits issued to the industry during that period. And with all of this income, can you guess how much Rockstar North paid in taxes? That’s right, absolutely nothing between 2009 and 2018.
The thinktank noted:
“It is outrageous that the UK taxpayer is being asked to shell out tens of millions of pounds in subsidy to the developers of Grand Theft Auto, when at the time that the game’s developers put in their tax credit application Grand Theft Auto V had already generated several billion dollars in sales and profits. This is a drive-by assault on the British taxpayer and corporate welfare scrounging at its very worst.”
It should also be noted that no one is claiming any illegal activity on the part of Rockstar North. The news of Rockstar’s nonexistent tax bill is likely to come off as especially egregious considering the company recently opened up a literal casino in Grand Theft Auto V where players from certain countries are able to buy virtual chips with real life currency.
(Source: TaxWatch)
In Plain English: Lohan Loses GTA Lawsuit Appeal
Lindsay Lohan has lost her appeal in New York State Court today in a privacy lawsuit against Take Two.
Lohan sued Take Two Interactive in regards to allegations that the company illegally used her likeness in Grand Theft Auto V. In the game, players assist a celebrity by the name of Lacey Jonas escape the paparazzi. Lohan’s lawyers argued that the Jonas character was a likeness of Lohan’s image and personality and thus constituted an invasion of privacy.
The appeals court ruled that the image of Lacey Jonas constituted an “indistinct, satirical representations of the style, look, and persona of a modern, beach-going young woman” and thus were not recognizable as Lohan. In the ruling, it was also noted that a character in a video game would fall under the laws governing using the likeness of a living person for purposes of selling a product, however the character used in Grand Theft Auto V was not close enough to Lohan to constitute a likeness of her.
“Here, the Jonas character simply is not recognizable as plaintiff inasmuch as it merely is a generic artistic depiction of a “twenty something” woman without any particular identifying physical characteristics. The analysis with respect to the Beach Weather and Stop and Frisk illustrations is the same.”
The court did not address the advertising and trade elements of Lohan’s appeal. The court also struck down the appeal of Karen Gravano against Take Two, a similar case to Lohan’s, citing similarly that the game did not appropriate her likeness when creating the character Andrea Bottino.
(Source: NYS Court of Appeals)
Not Massive: Sony Won’t Ban You For Early Playing
If my childhood is anything to go off of, Sony’s consistent public contradiction of Microsoft is going to net them a belt buckle to the head, you know once the two are out of the public view. Take Two and Rockstar Games have been going insane with shutting down any outlet for pre-release Grand Theft Auto V goodies, going as far as apparently threatening legal action against some publications. Look around and you’ll find a pile of now banned accounts on Livestream, Youtube, and more.
Microsoft has continued their policy of working in tandem with the publisher and handing out console bans to anyone caught leaking pre-release gameplay, IE: Anyone caught streaming or posting screenshots/captures of their gameplay online. It is important to the conversation to point out that the bans are related to the leaking of game footage before the official street date, and not the mere act of playing the game.
Enter Sony, a company whose past few months of public relations can be whittled down to “the opposite of what Microsoft just said.” Sony is not banning anyone with a legitimate copy of GTA V who post footage of their game online before Tuesday’s launch, a move that will likely net them brownie points with the gaming community if at the expense of Rockstar’s goodwill.
If you do manage to get ahold of a copy, you’re pretty safe as long as you don’t start streaming or leaking footage.
Not Massive: Sony Won't Ban You For Early Playing
If my childhood is anything to go off of, Sony’s consistent public contradiction of Microsoft is going to net them a belt buckle to the head, you know once the two are out of the public view. Take Two and Rockstar Games have been going insane with shutting down any outlet for pre-release Grand Theft Auto V goodies, going as far as apparently threatening legal action against some publications. Look around and you’ll find a pile of now banned accounts on Livestream, Youtube, and more.
Microsoft has continued their policy of working in tandem with the publisher and handing out console bans to anyone caught leaking pre-release gameplay, IE: Anyone caught streaming or posting screenshots/captures of their gameplay online. It is important to the conversation to point out that the bans are related to the leaking of game footage before the official street date, and not the mere act of playing the game.
Enter Sony, a company whose past few months of public relations can be whittled down to “the opposite of what Microsoft just said.” Sony is not banning anyone with a legitimate copy of GTA V who post footage of their game online before Tuesday’s launch, a move that will likely net them brownie points with the gaming community if at the expense of Rockstar’s goodwill.
If you do manage to get ahold of a copy, you’re pretty safe as long as you don’t start streaming or leaking footage.
False Alarm: GTA Online Is GTA V Online
It’s a knee jerk reaction to assume that whenever a company places the word Online in their title, that the game will be an MMO. Grand Theft Auto Online, announced previously this week, hasn’t turned out to be the MMO that we thought it would be, but the real answer isn’t any less disappointing. Set to be launched October 1st, GTA Online moves forward from the multiplayer mode available in GTA IV, allowing up to sixteen players per server to run around and pretty much do as they please.
What sets GTA Online apart from GTA IV’s online mode is the emphasis on user generated content. Using an in-game editor, players will be able to put together races, deathmatch maps, missions, and more. As players play the online mode, they will obtain money and be able to progress through a separate story mode, meeting new faces and taking on missions that can be completed cooperatively. Rockstar Games has noted that while GTA Online will be very similar to GTA V when it launches in October, over time the title will be updated with new locations, new gameplay mechanics, and new features to set it apart from the single player story.
As far as pricing goes, we have nothing to go off of other than a comment that GTA Online will be free for those who buy GTA V. How the game will handle microtransactions will have to be seen.
(Source: Gamasutra)
MMO Fallout 