When assessing the current console battle, one can always point towards top multiplatform sellers – when the product is mostly identical in quality across the competing consoles – as being good indicators. In this way, it's very interesting to hear about the massive accumulated sales for Grand Theft Auto IV , and how they're split between the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
Well, they are split, apparently…almost right down the middle. We don't have the exact numbers but we do have the word straight from the horse's mouth, so-to-speak. During a conference call where Take-Two Interactive reviewed their first-quarter financial results, one analyst asked, "…can you give us an idea as to this 13 million GTA 4 units, how many of those are Xbox 360 platform? So what's the addressable market for the downloadable The Lost and Damned." In reply to the first question, Take-Two CFO said, "It's approximately 50/50, Ed." So, roughly, one can assume that the PS3 and 360 versions of GTAIV each sold equally well, which further begs the question: is it really sensible to have exclusive downloadable content? The current rumor concerning this very subject is that The Lost and Damned will eventually find its way to the PS3, but not until some time next year. GTA fans that are also PS3 owners and who don't own a 360 aren't happy about the situation, but there's little we can really do about it. Take-Two is obviously aware of the split in sales regarding the PS3/360 versions of GTAIV, so maybe now that it's staring at them in black and white, they'll do something about it.
As for the split itself, one has to remember that when the game launched in late April of last year, the user base gap between the PS3 and 360 was very large, and Sony certainly hadn't sold 22 million units as they have now. Therefore, it stands to reason that perhaps the blockbuster franchise garnered most of its fans during its exclusive PS2 days, and that remaining lot has caused the 50/50 split despite the PS3/360 gap (which is closing, but still separated by about 7 million units). It's just a theory, though. If you want to read the entire transcript for Take-Two's earnings call, feel free…it's a little long, but still interesting for business-oriented minds.
Related Game(s): Grand Theft Auto IV
Hell, the PS3 should have gotten the DLC since the series became popular on a Sony console. But concidering its about a biker gang, I'm not as upset about not receiving it.
It's actually an awesome addon… it's been purchased around a million times so it was hardly a bad investment on Microsoft and Take-Two's part (they'll recoop the 50 million on this eps alone)
so that would mean that more ps3 owners bought gtaiv compared to xbox owners, since xbox had the higher number of user base at that time.
I'm very surprised by this. PS3 users knew they weren't getting the DLC content (at least not upfront) and 360 users knew they were yet there is a 50/50 split. Someone please explain what to me seems very illogical.
since when has buying a xbox been logical???? 😉
It's pretty obvious from the percentage of sales that no one gives two flips about the DLC. Why buy an inferior system so you can have DLC you don't care about? It's pretty simple to understand really.
Yea, GTAIV never really shifted the number of new console sales that many expected, for either the PS3 or Xbox 360… so it must have been a relatively small # for those who upgraded solely b/c of GTAIV.
Seems like the majority of those who bought it already owned one of the current gen systems.
when you work out console worldwide sales to title platform sales, yes it would mean that more ps3 owners percentage wise bought GTAIV vs. 360 owners.
Or maybe it means that the gap in actual owners is not as far apart as we all think and that some of those console sold numbers of the 360 might really be rebuys. Anyway in light of this new news do you think we may see some type of DLC or extra disc come our way now like previously speculated and as someone else asked will anyone still care by the time it gets here
Dang it, you beat me to saying exactly that…but with a lot more words….and rambling….and cake.
mmmmmmmm cake…
I still wonder if Best Buy counts my 4 RRD 360's I exchanged as rebuys
unfortunatley, I dont think it will make a difference. At least not for a while.
By the time that dlc release most of Sony's exclusive games will be out including GOW3 and no one will even give a second thought about gtaIV
PSN ID Biggest_GMoney
Well it probably is easier to develop for a lesser system faster right? 🙂
It is because everyone forgets to realize that the 360 console sales figures don't take into account RROD purchases.
The 360 has (and possibly still does… I don't really know) a 30% failure rate and from a first hand perspective (worked in retail where we sold PS3's & 360's) quite a few people just go out and buy a new console rather than try to get the warranty work done through Microsoft. When I asked people if this was their first console, they said over half the time that they are just replacing their RROD console. Now this could just be that the city of Edmonton got a larger percent of defective 360's than everyone else on the planet but I am thinking that this is just the average. So lets just play with the numbers for a sec…. you have approximately 30 million 360's. We will even be nice and give them a 25% failure rate. That would be 7.5 million RROD 360's and we will even be nice and only have half of them buy new ones instead of trying to fix them so that would make it about 3.75 million 360's. That would only make it about a 3 million console difference between the 360 and the PS3.
Also, regarding the people who own both the 360 and PS3. We all know people who bought the 360 when it first launched and as soon as they got their PS3, they stopped playing with their 360 all together. Personally I know of a half dozen of my friends who are in that boat. For me that percentage is very high, but lets say about 10% of the 360's aren't used at all. So that would be another 3 million people are off the 360 software buying list. That now makes it 7 million less 360's than their total console sales which would bring it back down to the number of PS3 users.
It is entirely possible that these numbers are wrong, in fact I can probably gurantee it, but it does beg the question, how many 360's are actually out there. A game like GTA4 being as popular as it is should have sold more on the 360 than the PS3 but if it was about 50/50, then maybe the real console numbers are closer than they are telling us.
Just to take it one step further, if you take into account the fact that the 360 has a 1 year head start on the PS3 which they sold 6 million units, you could even make the claim that the PS3 is actually winning the console war this generation.
Well, I entirely agree with you about the RRoD thing. I've said that many times before: "okay, those are the sales…but how many of those are NEW consumers; consumers who aren't simply replacing their broken 360?" Microsoft did just announce they've finally fixed the issue, though, and while I still say it's BULLSH** that it took so long, here's hoping they really did fix it.
As for the part about new PS3 owners abandoning their 360, I can't agree with that. Sure, I play my PS3 more often, but I have my 360 for the same reason I had the original Xbox: for the exclusives, and those tend to come on a semi-frequent basis. I dropped everything on the PS3 to play Gears 2, for example. I'll probably do it again when stuff like Alan Wake and Gears 3 comes out.
I think it comes down to what you bought the systems for in the first place.
You're also assuming that 100% of PS3 owners are happy with it and are still playing it. Not likely. They'd be wrong, but not likely.
at least half of the 360s I sell at gamestop are replacements.
The current 360 run at a lower power usage than even the Wii. And you really need to expand your horizons… this fanboyness really will leave you out in the cold. I mean I've got a 360, but I'm saving up for my PS3 and eventually Wii. It's pointless to down a system like most of you.
A 50/50 split seems about right for GTAIV if these are worldwide sales figures I'm assuming.
It's more like 1.4 million units diffrence when you take in account sales to console owners.
I am one of them . Who says ps3 owners don't buy games .
The RRD probably far surpasses the the difference in console sales because if you can find a shit load of reviews from people who went threw atleast 2 or 3 consoles within the first year and a half after launch, plus even when they had the extended warranty the probably counted the replacements in there because they always liked to count the "shipped" number instead of the sold number to beggin with.
Last edited by buck on 3/11/2009 2:48:03 PM
If that what makes you sleep better at night.
PS3 20,979,396
X360 29,103,973
But those are cold hard numbers friend(+/- 10 percent)
anyone have a clue how long it takes for them to check a post?
Last edited by buck on 3/11/2009 2:48:46 PM
I never got GTAIV. I played it at my friends house first day and never bothered. Didn't interest me. I had RSV2 and COD4 😀
Okay good deal, now its time for all exclusive DLC to make like the Red Sea and split.
Last edited by WorldEndsWithMe on 3/11/2009 4:35:10 PM
Wasn't it the Dead Sea?
Nope. World had it right.
-Arvis
Is that Lincoln Mall in Matteson?
It certainly does make it look like a larger percentage of PS3 owners buy games and are therefore a more interesting market share. 360 has more systems out there, but the owners aren't buying.
Oh, and UT3 2.0 patch is out today and it's friggin' cool. That's a PS3 exclusive for ya.
I bought my PS3 April of last year for one reason: Grand Theft Auto IV. MGS4 coming out a few months later was icing on the the GTA cake.
I had always wanted a PS3 obviously but I couldn't take missing out on GTA IV.