Task 2: Investigate one of Rockstar’s products: GTA 5 By James Gill

What is the purpose of GTA V? The purpose of Take Two and their business is to make good quality games such as GTA that will attract their target audience and also make a good profit on their games and earn advertisement for their goods. They also make other games such as Midnight Club and Red Dead Redemption to try and make a profit on making them. Take Two had a budget of $200million and spent $170million of that to create and market the game. You will be able to purchase it in most superstores or game stores. They made back that $170million within the first 7 hours they made the $170million back and within the next 3 days whatever they made was profit which arose to $1billion.

What genre is GTA V? I think GTA V is an action/comedy genre. It also has an adult humor to it as there is a fair amount of sexual scenes involved in the video game. Because of the content in the game, the main target audience is young adults who are attracted to the violence and crime scenes. Both genders are attracted to this game but mainly for males as it may seem as not a very attractive game to many females as it isn't a very feminine game to play as there target audience is young adult males.

Content of the game. During the online game mode on Grand Theft Auto 5 you don’t play with the main characters from the single mode. Here you play with a character you create. The online mode is a big part of the game as there is some features you couldn’t do on GTA V on the offline mode such as create your own player, Rockstar also update the online mode with new features such as new missions and heists and new cars. There is also features such as the strip club and go shopping for clothes. The single player mode you play with three main characters and the narrative of each character as you can change from character to character at any point in the game. The game is known to be a sandbox game as the players have an open world environment.

Analysis

Textual analysis From analyzing the mise en scene, it can be seen as a quite run down area where a lot of crimes are committed. The genre of this shot could be seen as a crime clip as two black middle aged males are coming towards franklin to potentially tallk to him about committing a crime or doing something illegal All the negative stereotype that we see in the game features in it. There are no positive representation in this shot. These boys will be stereotyped as gangsters to the society because of their dress code, e.g they are wearing caps and chains. The gang culture will represent the characters in a negative way to the audience. They will also be stereotyped as gangsters because of the gender and ethnicity, they are all males and black. The iconography, which is visual clues to the genre will be things such as wearing large clothes, chains, hats, rings, this will represent the characters as gangsters to the audience. The shot type is a long shot as the focus of the shot is the 3 characters

Analysis

Textual analysis This shot implies that they are proven to be gangsters within the area that they live. You can tell this by the mise en scene, as there are cars that have tinted windows, it also shows a negative representation to them as they have balaclava covering their faces and they are also holding guns which represents them as being gang members. They are young black adults which people like these are stereotyped as gangsters by people in the society. The image is a true representation of the game, as the content of the image is what you would a gamer to experience. This part of the trailer represents what you will be doing in the game and tells the viewers that they will be involved in a lot of This is a long shot with a figure in a foreground as there is a character falling to the ground as he has just been shot from the other characters

Analysis

Textual analysis This shot of Trevors trailer of GTA V it represents that his character involves a lot of violence as he is seen hitting someone around the head with a bat, this connotes that not only his character but throughout the game with all characters you will be able to access weapons and use them when necessary and also cause violent scenes. Trevor represents hillbilly and redneck because he is separated from society and lives in a trail park.

Analysis

Textual analysis This shot also represents Trevor as trouble maker throughout the game as he in trying to commit a crime by robbing a car with refers back to the title of the game “Grand Theft Auto” which is another title for car robbery. As a gamer, watching the trailer you would expect to experience this and actually commit a crime such as Grand Theft Auto at some point whilst playing the offline mode and playing with characters such as Trevor, Franklin and Michael.

artwork

Real life parody The creators of the GTA 5 game have related the game to real life in small assets of thw game. They have named the whole section of the game Los Santos after the state in America Santa Monica. Gamers can relate to the game when they are playing because it makes the game realistic as it people will be familiar with the game.

Artwork analysis 1) this shot gives the gamers the intention that these will be the main characters within the game. The gun also implies that there will be a lot of crime within the game. They are standing side by side which also gives the gamers the intention that the characters will be working together on a job. 2) There is a board in the back with possible plans of the job which implies that they have multiple options on how to tackle the mission incase one don’t work. 3) It looks like they are in a flat/warehouse which is typical for the crime genre for a hide out 4) This shot gives a negative representation to the characters as they are carrying weapons and looks like they are planning to do a job that is illegal. 5) Their dress sense is typical for criminals as one is dressed smart in a suit and jacket, he is wearing this to look smart and intelligent and may represent authority and it implies that he is in charge of the situation. 6) Franklin looks less professional however as he is dress in casual clothes and he is the number 2 in the situation. None of them are dressed in normal criminal clothing e.g hooded tops jogging bottoms as it would give the plot away and people will automatically no that they are up to nothing good as they would be stereotyped.

box-art The helicopter and the car tells the game players some of the vehicles they are able to drive when playing the game. The vehicles are very aspirational to the young males playing the game The game is aimed at male gamers, therefore having a female on the front cover will appeal to the males buying the game as she is seen as a good looking women. It also makes her look as if she’s in charge as we are looking down on her. The jet-ski connotes that the characters have a lot of money Trevor’s face is very serious and aggressive, and he is also holding a gun, this connotes that he is potentially going to commit a crime Micheal is holding some weapong and is holding, which may mean he could be on a heist. And makes him look like he is in charge of the seen

Flow chart Pre-production Production Marketing Distribution

Pre- production ProductionMarketingDistribution Pre production is the planning before they start making the game This is when

Flow chart Pre production- Concept, audience research, research. Production- Development of graphics, coding Marketing- Promoting, trailers Distribution- Pre-order, physical copy

Pre production Pre production is the planning before they start making the game. Rockstar announced that that they were making GTA V 25 th October 2011, one week later the first trailer was released. Rockstar had a budget of around £265million to create the game and also sell it to shops. Rockstar would then start to discuss the location and the characters of the game. The location they decided on was ‘Los Santos’ which was a parody of Los Angeles. They went to research Los Angeles so they knew how to represent the area and also the citizens of the city. They took pictures and spoke to the community. They will think of all the characters, how they will be represented, what their going to look like and their names. They will be full of debates and arguments.

Production GTA took five years to release from when they started the creation of the game. When the production first started, Rockstar had around 1000 people working for them to help them complete the game as quick as possible. It takes a long time to start and can become very tricky to make during creating the gameplay. They started making the game with all the planning as soon as Gta IV was released in they announced they had started making GTA V 3 years later in 2011.

Marketing This is how the directors of gta would have marketed, where members of the public on public transport on busy roads, because it will catch the eyes of members of the public as they will see the posters when they walk or drive on busy roads at peak times They will also put up posters and banners in the underground and in the Train stations as thousands of people when waiting for their trains they have something to read and it may catch their eyes and may buy a copy of the game.

Distribution There are 2 ways Rockstar can distribute the game that is by selling the game in shops, like supermarkets and game shops, where people can purchase the game as a disk in a case. Nearly all supermarkets and high street shops sell this game and have agreed to sell it also with rockstar. Shops will also make a profit on selling these games on to members of the public as they will have to pay the set price of the game because they will be willing to pay for it. The second way that Rockstar can distribute the game is selling it online on sources such as Playstation store and Xbox market place. If bought on these sources, they will be a software on their consoles.