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Grant Theft Auto IV will have $400 million first week sales?

16 April 2008 18:48 by James "Dela" Delahunty | 9 comments

The reigning champion of opening-week performance in the videogames industry is the 2007 Xbox 360 smash-hit Halo 3. The title boosted the sales of Xbox 360 consoles and fell into shoppers hands until it reached a $300 million opening week. The launch and ripple effect was big enough for Hollywood figures to blame it for poor box office performances at the time.

Now Halo 3, which had a single platform release, may be dethroned by Rockstar's upcoming (and seriously delayed) Grand Theft Auto IV, which will enjoy a wider audience when it hits both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 (PS3) platforms later this month. Variety cites industry analysts who boldly predict an opening week worth $400 million for GTA IV.

Sources close to the publisher, Take-Two Interactive, said that GTA IV is expected to sell about 6 million units in its first week on sale. Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes expected the chain will sell twice as many copies of the new GTA title than it did Halo 3, while GameStop's Bob McKenzie says that orders are actually trailing behind the Halo 3 figures at the moment.

If the game could generate sales of $404 million, then it would actually beat "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," in their respective opening weeks and show on the bottom line just how much more momentum videogames can generate these days. The management at Take-Two is counting on a huge first week performance for Grand Theft Auto IV to reflect in the company's stock price and justify the management's advice to shareholders to reject a $2 billion takeover attempt from Electronic Arts.

The previous title in the series, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, sold 21.5 million units, putting it up with the most successful games of all time. While the GTA franchise is very successful in the United States and Europe, the demand is not near matched in much of Asia.

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Permalink to this article | Topic: Consoles

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GTA IV will sell 10+ million copies, says Take-Two (3 May 2008)

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Grand Theft Auto IV is not banned in UK (2 April 2008)

GTA IV was delayed because of PlayStation 3 (25 January 2008)

GTA IV delayed until early 2008 (3 August 2007)

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Discuss this article!
muccione (Newbie) 16 April 2008 19:05
i can't wait......I am buying 1 for each console....It sucks to do that but what if something is diff from the other [ + quote]
esrever (Member) 16 April 2008 19:38
I'm getting one as well. Can't wait [ + quote]
chubbyInc (Member) 16 April 2008 19:55
I thought both were the same, but 360 has updates and more mission for their version to be released later. I've already pre-ordered the special edition version. Feel sorry for the movies releasing that same week. [ + quote]
kaosX (Senior Member) 16 April 2008 20:22
oh yeah, i already got mine preordered through amazon to get the "liberty city - worst place in America" license plate =D http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/...e-plate-700.jpg overnight shipping of course!! [ + quote]
CrowDUDE (Junior Member) 16 April 2008 22:22
I pre-ordered the special edition version as well "PS3" and i cant wait to start playin... [ + quote]
Dela (Staff Member) 16 April 2008 23:11
I pre-ordered but when I did they were unsure of the final price and of what versions of the game there will be (special edition etc.) I put down �75 on it. [ + quote]
7thsinger (AfterDawn Addict) 17 April 2008 15:13
I'm too am eagerly awaiting this one. Got a hookup in one of the stores who's making sure there's a copy with my name on it for the PS3. [ + quote]
muccione (Newbie) 17 April 2008 15:29
Don't worry about getting a copy......If Take-Two Interactive is planning $400 mill in sales it must have that many copies available. It would be foolish to make a statement like that and not have that much available... My wife works for blockbuster and the CEO has promised every store enough to sell. Way more than Halo3 [ + quote]
chubbyInc (Member) 19 April 2008 22:39
That's a cool plate, is it same size as normal vehicle plates? [ + quote]