Rockstar’s handheld masterpiece Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars has failed to capture the sales of the mature DS audience. Unit sales are massively below expectations of 200,000 to 400,000 in North America at a measly 89,000. Fans of the game that were holding out for a follow-up will now be disappointed as this news surely knocks a nail into that coffin. There is always hope that sales will gain momentum, however that is quite unlikely.
Doug Creutz, analyst of Cowan and Company, says this brings the viability of mature titles on the DS into question.
“Take 2 exported their most valuable IP onto the most widely distributed gaming platform, and created the most highly-rated title in the history of that platform. However, either the demographics are more challenging than we thought, or core gamers did not view the title as an essential purchase due to the nature of the platform.”
I had a feeling GTA wasn’t setting any sales records but this is surprising at just ho low the figures are. The title has the highest metacritic score of any DS game and is easily one of the best games I have played on the console. It really deserves to sell as much as any of the GTA games that came before it. Let’s hope this doesn’t put Rockstar off thinking about creating a GTA game for the Wii.
For those of you who were thinking of getting this game (and even those that weren’t!) I would highly recommend you do. It will not disappoint.
Source: MCV
