Analyst Compares GTA DS to PSP Sales

By Jorge Ba-oh 14.04.2009 17

Analyst Compares GTA DS to PSP Sales on Nintendo gaming news, videos and discussion

An Analyst has judged the performance of GTA: Chinatown Wars DS by comparing its 2 week sales to the PSP game's lifetime.

Jesse Divnich feels that the industry "may have been over-zealous" with initial expectations on how GTA: Chinatown Wars would perform. How? By stating a prediction that it "sold only 200,000 units in March". The DS game came out on March 17th in the US.

The results from Chinatown are an important benchmark for the industry, as it will be the best-performing mature rated title on the Nintendo DS to date coupled with one of the strongest mature-rated game brands.

Previous GTA titles on the PSP have sold in excess 1 million units lifetime. The performance on the DS highlights clearly the demographic differences between the two platforms in the handheld market.

Whilst it is true that Chinatown's results will be an important indicator for bringing mature-rated titles to the platform, comparing strong sales for a 2-week old DS game to the PSP GTA titles lifetime sales is, well, we'll leave it up to you.

Thanks to NeoGAF.

Box art for Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
Developer

Rockstar Leeds

Publisher

Take-Two

Genre

Adventure

Players

1

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  8/10

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  9/10 (17 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date Out now   Australian release date Out now   

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meeto_0 is offline. meeto_0 14.04.2009#1

"comparing strong sales for a 2-week old DS game to the PSP GTA titles lifetime sales is, well, we'll leave it up to you."

I see where your train of thought is going with that sentence. But GTA is a very tradtional game for a set demographic and they do by tradition have their peak sales at the start before trailing of.

Mario games, braintraining and co are an exception I feel.
But we will see. I hope it is a stayer and sells just a well.

 
Darkflame is offline. Darkflame 14.04.2009#2

I think its less of a demographic difference (the DS has plenty of owners in the 20-30 male range), and more of a market saturation one.
GTA on the PSP is a big game amongst a smaller selection of quality releases. Much like, say, Conduit would sale stronger on the Wii because theres little competition.
Not saying theres many games that are like GTA on the DS, but theres certainly no urgent need for quality games. Theres at least 10 at the moment I wouldnt mind owning.....If I wasnt still playing ones I already bought.

Of course, this is purely speculation. All we have here is quotes, when youd really need sales figures comparisons over similair periods.

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meeto_0 is offline. meeto_0 14.04.2009#3

I disagree Darkflame. There Probably is more 20-30 males who own a ds compared to the number that own a wii. But that demographic is proportionally larger on the PSP.
I do agree the software on PSP is lacking but even if it wasnt. THe gta brand carries such weight with the consumer who buy into it. It would sell bucket loads in a sea of A list titles.

 
Flynnie is offline. Flynnie 14.04.2009#4

What an idiot, im sorry but how do these analysts get their jobs, i mean how can anyone do that! 200,000 units in just the US, isnt too bad at all!

 
EdEN is offline. EdEN 14.04.2009#5

And then you have another demographic: 20-30 males who own a DS but couldn't care less for GTA as a whole. Never bought it on PS2, will buy a PS3 in a month or two but will skip GTA (and MGS 4) in favor of Ratchet (and it's DLC Episode), Uncharted, Batman, Siren, Fallout 3, Resistance 1 and 2, Bioshock, Valkyria Chronicles, RE 5 and Prince of Persia.

All in all, I do see GTA: CW selling over 1,000,000 copies. DS games have shown incredibly long shelf-life, and analyst have shown they know NOTHING about predicting sales anymore... or ever at that.

 
Stulaw is offline. Stulaw 14.04.2009#6

Green Ranger said:
What an idiot, im sorry but how do these analysts get their jobs, i mean how can anyone do that! 200,000 units in just the US, isnt too bad at all!

I agree. I think that anyone can be an analyst, they all seem to be pretty stupid no nothings.

And this comparison is really stupid, Lifetime vs 2 weeks, chinatown wars would obviously have lower sales in that space of time, if they made this comparison in a years time, then it would be fair.

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WP-Final is offline. WP-Final 14.04.2009#7

Until he gets official numbers he shouldn't compare a thing. 200,000 is just his guess and the real numbers may be much higher. The NPD chatr should be out this week so we'll find out then.

 
Darkflame is offline. Darkflame 14.04.2009#8

There Probably is more 20-30 males who own a ds compared to the number that own a wii. But that demographic is proportionally larger on the PSP.

True, but only due to the lack of other demographics.
Not due to the fact there is, as a whole, more of that group in total. At least, I'm 90% sure of that.

Proportionate demographics inst important so much as total.

http://www.fanficmaker.com <-- Tells some truly terrible tales.
Last update; Mice,Plumbers,Animatronics and Airbenders. We also have the socials; Facebook & G+. 
 
Jump_button is offline. Jump_button 14.04.2009#9

maybe ppl dont like the old school GTA top down :/

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J4K is offline. J4K 14.04.2009#10

Jump_button said:
maybe ppl dont like the old school GTA top down :/

That may have a lot to do with it. Being top down, it doesn't have the same "wow-factor".

 
Nin1Od0 is offline. Nin1Od0 15.04.2009#11

i don't see why the analyst just couldn't wait for a month worth of sales so he can just do a month comparison of GTA PSP titles vs DS GTA:CW.

2 weeks vs a year? WOW

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jb is offline. jb 15.04.2009#12

200,000 copies in 14 days is amazing, no matter what bloomin' game it is. Still, it's his estimation so who knows how high/low it's been. It's been just under a month since release, so still a load of time for it to build and grow.

In any case, tis a worthy entry in the GTA line - a must have!

Cubed3 Admin/Founder & Designer
 
Laurelin is offline. Laurelin 15.04.2009#13

This statement is astounding, considering the broken down DS market, considering this game isn't even out 2 weeks in some countries, considering he's comparing fruits with vegetables, considering he's probably been quoted by most media - but only his headline, considering this conclusion, especially based on his foundations is hilarious...

What exactly was he trying to say? That there are no DS users present who fit the demographics? That's funny, with 140 Million DSses there *must* be some around fitting the target market...

And even funnier, that Sony's platform may cover all kinds of games and Nintendo's only kiddie games?
Are these the same people who are whispering to the publishers only to sell crappy games on Wii?
why is DS market almost broken down in Europe? Because of such thinking and such analysts.

I don't know who said this thing about critics, I heard it in a most beloved movie (forgoth which one): "Today, everyone's an analyst?!"

I find your lack of faith disturbing!
 
HazukiSan is offline. HazukiSan 15.04.2009#14

Analyst in talking out of arse shocker! Why do we even report on these wankstains? These are the same analysts who said the Wii's bubble will have burst by now, that the DS will have faced stiff competition against the PSP, that 2008 was the PS3's year, that the 360 would have problems stealing Sony's install base, that the Dreamcast would be a roaring success and that the 3DO would destroy anything Sony could throw at it.

 
Trepe is offline. Trepe 15.04.2009#15

I really don't think these analysts should get any of our time. All they do is pluck guesses out of the air and everyone listens.
200,000 is just a guess and who's to say it won't become a slow burner like most of the other DS big sellers.

 
Flynnie is offline. Flynnie 15.04.2009#16

HazukiSan said:
Analyst in talking out of arse shocker! Why do we even report on these wankstains? These are the same analysts who said the Wii\'s bubble will have burst by now, that the DS will have faced stiff competition against the PSP, that 2008 was the PS3\'s year, that the 360 would have problems stealing Sony\'s install base, that the Dreamcast would be a roaring success and that the 3DO would destroy anything Sony could throw at it.

Smilie

Exactly, i think they are just the same as weathermen, its just a bunch of guessing games!

( Edited 15.04.2009 15:40 by Green Ranger )

 
Darkflame is offline. Darkflame 15.04.2009#17

Exactly, i think they are just the same as weathermen, its just a bunch of guessing games!

That is grossly, grossly unfair on weatherman.
A hell of a lot of effort goes into it and its constantly being refined.

Even then, they only claim knowledge about a week in advance at most...getting progressively more generalised.

http://www.fanficmaker.com <-- Tells some truly terrible tales.
Last update; Mice,Plumbers,Animatronics and Airbenders. We also have the socials; Facebook & G+. 
 

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