Comments on: April NPD: Greenberg says May will be better hardware indicator, GTA has new home

By: Psychotext

Psychotext — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:31:14 +0000

whoelse: It’s not really a valid argument though. The smaller the userbase, the higher the percentage of hardcore gamers that makes up that userbase (See only 7% of PS2 owners buying San Andreas at launch).

Publishers don’t look at what percentage of a console’s owners bought the game… they look at what made them more money.

By: whoelse

whoelse — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:28:24 +0000

I dont think you can call the 360 the new home for GTA. It sold more because there are more 360s sold already in america. The PS3 had a high attach rate.

By: patlike

patlike — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:28:48 +0000

PT: Sure, that’s true. And that’s why it would never have happened this time round. There’s no clear winner in the console “war” at the moment and cutting out 360 would have been ridiculous. Last time it was PS2 versus Dreamcast, and there was only one way that was going.

By: Psychotext

Psychotext — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:21:40 +0000

OrphanageExplosion: No increase, they went down by about 10% based on weekly sales.

By: OrphanageExplosion

OrphanageExplosion — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:13:26 +0000

So what % increase did both consoles get in April vs March?

I’m thinking that Mr Microsoft may be right here. If the game came out on April 29, the window for a boom in hardware sales is rather limited.

By: Psychotext

Psychotext — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:51:31 +0000

patlike: Yeah… exclusivity may have helped hardware sales, but it wouldn’t have helped the game sales. Plus it would have cost too much to buy the exclusivity, compared to the bump it would have likely given.

By: OrphanageExplosion

OrphanageExplosion — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:46:44 +0000

GTA does indeed have VERY long legs. The contest has, in a very real sense, only just begun…

By: patlike

patlike — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:43:24 +0000

If it had been PS3-only I would have bought a PS3. No question. And I think a huge amount of other people would have done the same. Remember the hype in the last two weeks? In ten years working in games I’ve never seen anything like that. PlayStation GTA exclusivity shouldn’t be ignored as one of the critical factors in the way the last gen played out. Cast your minds back, seriously.

By: Tiger Walts

Tiger Walts — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:40:22 +0000

Yup, if it was PS3 only I would have only bought it when I felt that a PS3 was a viable purchase for me. By which time I’d probably be picking up the game for less than £20 and second hand with no benefit to R*.

By: Psychotext

Psychotext — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:38:34 +0000

It’ll tank… just like it did on the other two platforms (outside of Germany anyway!)

By: patlike

patlike — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:37:00 +0000

I think it’s only best if you can ensure the game’s technically successful on both platforms and you can get both SKUs out in the right timeframe. Quick-porting means muchos lost money, I reckon.

On the timeframe issue, a good example is UTIII on 360. I’ll be interested to see how it does now it’s been round for so long on PS3 and PC.

By: Blerk

Blerk — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:28:48 +0000

I wonder how things would’ve played out if it really had been exclusive to one format or the other? It’s difficult to imagine a scenario where Rockstar would’ve made as much money, tbh. The sales seem to cement the ‘multi-platform is best’ approach for my money.

By: Psychotext

Psychotext — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:24:07 +0000

Sony broke their thinking board working out how much they could rip out of the PS3 to drop the price.

Microsoft broke theirs trying to make a console that doesn’t explode.

By: Blerk

Blerk — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:19:12 +0000

Oh, Gods yes. Rockstar have loads to be grinning about, it’s Sony and Microsoft who need to go back to the thinking board.

By: Psychotext

Psychotext — Fri, 16 May 2008 10:53:11 +0000

GTA IV did pretty well all things considered though… San Andreas did 2.05m opening week to a userbase of 28m PS2 owners. GTA IV managed 2.85m on a combined PS3 / 360 userbase of roughly 14m.

Plus if the last one is anything to go by… it’s got really long legs. San Andreas went on to sell 21.5m units.

By: Blerk

Blerk — Fri, 16 May 2008 10:27:05 +0000

The lack of a hardware bump is a real shocker. Looks like pretty much everyone who wanted GTA had already bought a machine. :-/

I know it’s only five days worth of sales, but with the GTA hype machine as it was I’d have expected most of the new consoles to go on day one or over the first weekend.

By: Psychotext

Psychotext — Fri, 16 May 2008 10:24:14 +0000

I think they’d have been a lot happier had there been some sort of hardware bump.

By: patlike

patlike — Fri, 16 May 2008 10:21:55 +0000

He doesn’t sound as happy as I’m sure Rockstar are

By: Blerk

Blerk — Fri, 16 May 2008 10:19:55 +0000

They’re only ’sort of’ happy? Hard to please.