The sales of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars have caused a bit of a stir about whether or not the DS is a system that can support M-rated games. If you've been keeping up with the game, you'll know that its early number of 88,704 copies is a bit disappointing to most analysts who thought the game would sell around 200,000 copies in its first month. However, they're just a bunch of dinosaurs judging game sales by how they used to work, not how they work on Nintendo's systems. At least that is according to what Nintendo (and 2K Games and GameStop) say.
Speaking with MTV Multiplayer, Steve Singer, Nintendo's Vice President of Licensing, said, "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." A Nintendo rep also mentioned the sales of Call of Duty 4 on the DS, which launched with only 36,000 units in its first month and went on to sell more than 500,000 copies. It's the case of games on Nintendo's systems being far more evergreen than how games have sold in the past.
Nintendo also points out that the first month sales could be a result of the DS only having seven M-rated games on it, so people will be less likely to pick it up until word of mouth starts kicking in. Basically, Nintendo is saying that DS games don't sell like other games. Singer even mentions the odd sales curve that a plethora of DS games already have. That would easily throw a wrench into most analysts' ability to judge how a game will sell, and with all the positive press that Chinatown Wars is garnering, one can't help but wonder if word of mouth will actually jump-start sales. What do you think -- are we seeing a new era of how games sales are going to work?
Matthew Razak is Destructoid's Associate editor and co-founder of film site
Flixist. He began as community member "cowzilla" and was since sequestered to write brainy features material. He lives in Los Angeles with his beautiful wife.
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Contest:
10:00 PM on 04.18.2009
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Whether or not the game goes on to sell gangbusters in the long run, does it really matter? This is the DS we're talking about. Unless you are completely adamant against handheld gaming or you are on of the rare handheld gamers who honestly doesn't like the DS, among the enthusiast community it is agreed that the DS has become a haven for the widest variety of software. Sure, there are only a handful of M-rated games, but was that ever really a problem with the system? Has it not become THE place for Japanese developers? Have we not seen some of the most creative games come out of studios for it?
Even Western studios, who we claim don't give the system much thought, have brought us Guitar Hero, Drawn to Life, Contra 4, Soul Bubbles, Locke's Quest, Henry Hatsworth, and a whole slew of other well-received titles. Some have been sales successes, others haven't, but the variety is there. I don't think this ONE game is really all that important in the grand scheme of things for ANYONE, even the most diehard gamers.
Only time will tell how well Chinatown Wars will do in the long run. Honestly, I expected it to sell better given the brand power of the franchise and the platform's large userbase. Anyway, Chinatown Wars is a lot of fun so people are clearly missing out on a worthy game.
If the average customer uses DS and Wii more casually (yes, that word again), you're not going to expect them to line up at the door on release day.
Those people are eventually going to feel like buying a new game, but it'll be on their schedule - not the publisher's. So you see longer, flatter sales curves on Wii and DS than on PS3 and 360.
90k in 2 weeks is not great, but it's waaaay too early to call it a disaster.
This man speaks the fucking truth.
we can use "evergreen" in an unironic way now? what's next, destructoids "blue ocean report card"? this is videogames, not HBR!
and Chronic, this game is excellent, I;ve had tons of fun with it.
www.schocholautte.com
Doomed I say.
DOOMED.
I remember asking my parents to buy me games like contra and castlevania, both violent in their own right at the time, and the only thing that disturbed them was the box art, fearing that i would wet my bed from nightmares...never did these games say rated 18 and i think i was 9 years old then...
HOWEVER, presuming the game lives up to the reviews, the sales will climb as the games reputation spreads uncontrollably as the seeds continue to spread.
If what Analitic stated holds true, it can also be assumed that it would fall under the "toy" category and april traditionally isn't all that good in sales. Although I'm not sure if the age rating really holds up. If it does, it would mean that parents are finally getting a grip on the concept of "parental control".
I'm also interested if the DSi release hasn't influenced the sales. It could be that those (new) consumers are first going through the older items in the game library. Ah well, guess we'll just have to see how it pans out.
Well said. And it brings up another point. Isn't it just possible that this game... you know... sucks? I know that's heresy for some, especially analysts who sneer at the concept of quality and for whom the only words that matter are "Grand Theft Auto," but even if a lot of people still find GTA to be full-purchase fun, I think we're past the point where every branded sandbox game is a must-buy.
Also, I've never been one to enjoy "living room games" on my portable systems. Whenever I see a graphics-intensive RPG, shooter, or platformer that looks like a shrunk down PS36Wii game, I think "if I wanted to play that, I'd play the real version." I know that puts me in the minority at Dtoid, but I suspect I'm in the majority among portable and especially DS owners.
Thank you. Why are you the only guy saying this? Why is nobody reporting on this? Is this week retarded week? Is nobody aloud to be smart? Do gaming news sights just not go to ROM sites to simply check the number of downloads for a game. For CW, it's almost 200k (on one site). That is the problem. It's not that there isn't an audience for GTA on the DS, it's not that there wasn't enough advertising (South Park plugged the fucking game in an episode!), and it's not that the game isn't great. Nobody is aloud to argue against this. The numbers are right in front of our faces, and they paint a very clear picture of what has happened. The simple truth is that CW has been pirtated more than any other DS game by a wide margin, and the number of illegal downloads eclipse the number of sales.
And thats the whole truth. I don't understand why the DS haters are celebrating, and saying that this game will be more succesful in the psp, for those people I have a question:
How much sold resistance retribution in march (winner of the best portable game in the E3 2008 and also a mature title)?
http://kotaku.com/5213054/dsi-includes-new-anti+piracy-protection
http://kotaku.com/5018180/a-look-at-nintendo-ds-piracy-in-korea
The long tail of these games exists because of casual gamers that just happen to hear about the games, while the so called hardcore have been playing day one on an illegal copy.