When Rockstar Games announced last year that they were bringing their Grand Theft Auto franchise to a Nintendo platform, it looked like a shift in the cosmos had occured. The original Grand Theft Auto was a late 1997 PC game that was planned to be brought over to the hot consoles of the day: the Sega Saturn, the Sony PlayStation, and the Nintendo 64. PlayStation ruled the day in those times and in the end the franchise made its mark on Sony's "32-bit" market-changer. The only time Nintendo got to catch onto this rising star was with the two Game Boy Color editions abstractly representing the first two games in the series. The new game was a welcome addition to a very diverse library. Hopes were high that GTA would strike fire on the redhot Nintendo handheld and convince the self-stated "hardcore" contingent that Nintendo systems were open to all kinds of developers.
But it didn't quite work out that way. The Business Insider's Silicon Alley Insider reported that Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (full impression) only sold 88,704 units in its March month debut well under the 200,000 to 450,000 expectations of industry analysts. Rockstar's parent company Take-Two Interactive expressed optimism in the game's long term success and now Nintendo themselves defend the performance of the game against the tsk-tsks of the analysts.
Read on...
Steve Singer, Nintendo of America's Vice President of Licensing and Third-Party Relations tells MTV Multiplayer Blog the following in a phone interview:
‘Chinatown Wars’ is performing in line with AAA titles that have come to our platform like 'Spore' or 'Lego Star Wars'. Those games went on to have very different life-to-date sales numbers.
Another Nintendo representative present brought attention to the case of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for the DS (released November 5, 2007 in North America) which initially had 36,000 in opening month sales going on to sell more than 500,000 units.
Singer blames the situation as "the result of having only a limited number of M-rated games on the platform." DS only has had 7 so far. He believes word of mouth will help the game in the long run and expects the assessment of the gam's performance to be very different 5 months to a year from now. He points out Nintendo's history of "non-traditional sales curves" of games that start out modestly but sell steadily in an evergreen pattern. And he said that consumers are responding to the quality of the game even if "maybe they’re responding slower than others would expect."
Singer didn't speak out on Nintendo's own sales expectations when pressed on the issue but in the end he hopes that the sales story of GTA: Chinatown Wars will be an encouraging one for game publishers. He leaves you with this quote:
I think strategically, this is a very important game because it helps send the message that great M-rated content can come to the platform and will find a home.
To make sure the point was made he said to give it time. "I think all it's going to take is time."
According to VGChartz.com, sales of the first handheld edition of a Grand Theft Auto game, PlayStation Portable's Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (released October 25, 2005 in North America), sold 161,806 units for the Americas in its opening week which completed the month of October. In 4 weeks time the accumulated American sales (primarily consisting of U.S.A.) was 327,872 units. The second handheld GTA, PSP's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (released October 31, 2006 in North America), sold 50,670 units for the Americas in its opening week. In 4 weeks time the accumulated North American sales was 134,275 units.
Worldwide, GTA: Liberty City Stories has sold to date over 5.67 million units and 2.6 million in the Americas. GTA: Vice City Stories has sold to date over 3.37 million units worldwide and 1.43 million in the Americas.
PSP was more popular in the U.S. in 2005 than it is now so this perhaps explains the great expectations of what's sure to be the best-selling handheld in videogame history. But the case of Wii Music being called an outright flop with its lackluster October 2008 numbers only to pick up the pace the following month shows that all may not be apparent from opening sales. And while it's true that Wii Music and games like it probably didn't live up to its producer's expectations, all the fuss and bother seems to be coming from the expectations of industry busybodies who feel chagrined when the numbers don't match their analytical ideals.
In my opinion I would have to partially agree with Nintendo and the public statements of Take-Two. The true story—win, lose, or draw—will not be apparent until time passes.
Thanks to Edge and the MTV Multiplayer Blog.
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