Report: GTA 4 Expected to Sell $400M in First Week

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Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3, X360) publisher Take-Two Interactive is expecting the title to achieve $400 million in sales during its first week at retail, if the word of Variety's sources are to be believed.

Developed by Take-Two subsidiary Rockstar North, the crime-filled and multiplayer-enabled open-world title is slated to launch on April 29.

Assuming those unnamed sources are correct, the company further believes it will sell over six million units of the game. Given that Grand Theft Auto IV is arriving on two platforms across multiple territories worldwide, that isn't such a far-fetched figure.

Such a strong performance would dethrone Bungie's Halo 3 (X360) from its spot at the top of the record books. In the week after its September 25 launch, the much anticipated shooter set a new record for a video game launch by bringing in over $300 million in sales.

In that same time span, 2.7 million gamers played Halo 3 online and logged a total of 40 million hours in the title. This led to Hollywood blaming Halo 3 for poor ticket sales, with some predicting a similar fate for the films hitting theaters after GTA 4.

Chris Faylor was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    April 16, 2008 9:27 AM

    [deleted]

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      April 16, 2008 9:45 AM

      "The Hollywood trade claims that "sources close to publisher Take-Two Interactive," which owns Rockstar Games, have been tracking how many units of GTAIV they have pre-sold to retailers. According to said sources, the publisher believes 6 million units of the Rockstar North-developed game will sell during its first week on the market, generating over $400 million in revenue.

      If that figure holds out, GTAIV will come close to exceeding the $404 million Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End grossed internationally during its first six days in theaters. It will soundly best the current record-holder for a game premiere, Halo 3, which earned $300 million by selling 5 million copies in its first week on the worldwide market last year.

      Some analysts are predicting GTAIV to do even bigger business when it arrives. Last October, Janco Partners' Mike Hickey said Rockstar's latest could "conceivably" ship 9.5 million units in one week--5.8 million in the US alone. The most popular GTA game to date is 2004's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which has sold nearly 22 million units worldwide to date on the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC."


      http://www.gamespot.com/news/6189326.html

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        April 16, 2008 9:53 AM

        I love how the games industry has to compare its sales to everything else. So GTA4 might make more than Pirates 3 did, eh? Well let me ask you this: how many copies of GTA4 were sold compared to guinea pigs bought from Pet Co.? Huh? Huh?! That's what I thought.

        Glad to see it'll beat Halo 3, though. "Over-rated" doesn't begin to describe my thoughts on that game.

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          April 16, 2008 10:04 AM

          Or even better, compare it on a per unit basis.

          Each unit of of GTA4 sold will cost about $60 per unit. Each unit (ie, ticket) of a movie sold will cost about $10 per unit. The comparison to the film industry is simply a ridiculous one when you're looking at such a disparity of revenue per unit.

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            April 16, 2008 10:46 AM

            not sure i agree with this because well money is money

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            April 16, 2008 11:24 AM

            That said, the game is limited to the number of consoles out there while the movie equivalent of a GTA4 is only limited by the number of theaters.

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          April 16, 2008 11:48 AM

          Comparing to other forms of media like movies makes sense to me. The game industry is trying to prove it\'s a major player in the entertainment industry; being able to match blockbuster movies in revenue is certainly something worth touting to further that goal.

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        April 16, 2008 12:55 PM

        pre-sold to retailers is not the same as pre-sold to consumers (sell-in vs. sell-through)

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