PS3 Outsells 360 in April, GTA IV Sells 3.3 Million in Six Days, Predicts Analyst
Add to that US sales prediction overall game sales soaring 113 percent to $830 million for April courtesy Grand Theft Auto IV, Mario Kart Wii, and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. An amazing April, in other words.
Riding high: Nintendo's Wii and DS cream the competition in Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter's figures with 600k and 550k in hardware sales respectively. Compare that to the PS3 (290k), Xbox 360 (275k), PSP (235k) and PS2 (160k). Ah yes, the tireless PS2. You can almost imagine the PS3 with its shamefully inconsistent PS2 backward compatibility features coming and going as the PS2 trundles on in the background to usher in the PS4.
Look at Pachter's numbers by brand, and you've got Nintendo on top by nearly half (1,150k), Sony in strong second place (685k), and Microsoft bringing up rears with a comparably anemic 275k. Would it behoove Microsoft to finally get in on the dedicated handheld game? I don't see why not. It's clear that market's nowhere close to saturated given DS and PSP sales trends in conjunction with general thoughts on consumer mobilization. I don't know about you, but I'm certainly playing more on the go than at any other point in my formerly-desk-locked-life. Whether Microsoft has the right stuff to fashion the coolest software, of course, is and probably will forever be the principal variable in that equation.
Following GTA IV's numbers can be a bit of a chore. After Variety reported that industry analysts were thinking the game would do $400 million in its first week off some 6 million units sold, Rockstar claimed GTA IV sold 3.6 million units worldwide on its first day of sales, generating revenue of $310 million. Pachter estimates U.S. numbers alone were 3.3 million units in the first six days, but the way that figures into worldwide revenue gets tricky because of the weak dollar, which made the retail price for GTA IV in Europe notably higher and inflated the $500 million worldwide number Take 2's claiming off 6 million copies sold in the seven days since the game was released on April 29.
According to Pachter, "The first week sell-through doesn’t change my view that lifetime sales [of GTA IV] will be approximately 18 million units, and doesn’t change my valuation of the company - still below $20 - meaning that EA’s offer still represents a premium to the intrinsic value of Take-Two." And according to Media By Numbers analyst Paul Dergarabedian (by way of Mercury News), GTA IV dovetailed with Iron Man (the film) to create in dollars spent "what may have been the biggest entertainment week ever." That's astonishing if it turns out to be true, buildup to or no. We'll know more after NPD drops its official numbers this Thursday.
What we do know: Halo 3's record was $300 million off 5 million units sold in a week. Any way you shake it, Take 2's epic crime opus easily muscled past Halo 3 by a million units and change to spare. The only thing as impressive, in my opinion: The Gran Turismo franchise, which broke 50 million units sold at the close of April 2008.
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I don't think it's really fair to compare Halo 3 to GTA IV. Everyone knows that Halo 3 was a Xbox exclusive and it still broke all kinds of records for only being on one system. It would almost be sad if GTA didn't break Halo's records.
I don't think that Halo's record really counts as it's Halo 3 and nothing of memorable importance. Sony is a bunch of douches from the old school and Nintendo licks twat like a carpet hungry lezzie at TGI Fridays. I put my money on the Sega Genisis making the come back of a lifetime (odd, considering that they aren't even in production any more)
Seriously though, Take Two's share being valued at less than $20 sounds like you've been paid by EA. Take Two's stocks were trading at a little more than $25 per share before they announced that GTA IV was going to be delayed 6 months. After Take Two announced GTA's delay their stock value dropped to the $15-17 area. Any market analyst with his or her weight, no offense to those watching their weight, knew that once GTA IV was released that Take Two's stock were going to take off, including Electronic Arts who jump to their and their stockholders front door with 2 billion dollars.
Give your head a shake.