GTA IV: PS3 vs. 360 in the United Kingdom
There are essentially two approaches to releasing video games: either you stick with a company and a console and hope people like your games enough that they’ll buy that console just to play your games, or you spread your seed far and wide, sowing in any field that seems fertile enough for a cash crop. Many successful franchises do this: Metal Gear Solid remains strongly in the Sony camp for the most part, Bungie despite regaining their freedom from Microsoft has still made no moves towards breaking their partnership with them. Nintendo sinks its claws deeper into the youth of the world every year with yet more Pokemon games. Some titles however are just too big to stick to one system. Since its inception the Grand Theft Auto games have garnered both acclaim and criticism, with most of the criticism coming from outside of the gaming community. There’s no doubt that the upcoming Grand Theft Auto IV will be a big seller all around, but if the UK is anything to judge by it seems that the majority of sales are already swinging in one direction. Asda, one of the biggest supermarket chains in the UK, has let it be known that in the presale department the PS3 version of the game is outselling the Xbox 360 by about three to one. It seems that at least for the Queen’s gamers, the promise of downloadable content in the future holds little appeal. These numbers are solely from the UK however; as we’ve seen for years there tends to be a preference (bias?) towards certain consoles in certain regions. You can be sure that GTAIV sales for the Xbox in Japan will be abysmally low.