I think the GTA name is still very synonymous with the PlayStation brand, and that when GTAIV arrives on shelves, people will rather be picking up PS3s than 360s in order to play it.
That said, I will most likely be getting it on the 360 myself.
I don't agree with this Analyst. Halo fans are more apt to buy the game on the first day. with GTA, consumers can wait a week before they buy, no need for a midnight rush.
I call BS. If you look at the number of Xbox 360s that have actually been sold in the entire world, it's currently (Oct 9) at around 11.5 Million. If history is any exception, Japan will have little interest in it, and it will be banned in Australia, meaning that for it to hit 8.1 million copies in it's first week, nearly everyone in the Americas and Europe will have to buy it. IF they can even produce the 9.5M copies that this article claims, (which is a whole separate reason in itself) and IF (lotta ifs here) they can pull off a simultaneous release. I'm not saying that this is impossible, I'm only saying it's ridiculous.
Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey says the recently delayed next-gen GTA sequel "could conceivably ship 9.5 million units" in its first week, resulting in a sell through of 8.1 million copies for a total of $466 million.
Missing the holiday season is terrible news for this game. As welshbloke said, because this is a system seller it would have been one of the main games people would have gone for to get with a new ps3 for christmas. If you look at the following weekly sales figures graph and notice that the peak for the 2nd holiday period is "traditionally" in the region of double that of the first. That is a lot of sales that GTA IV could have clung on to and it now has to rely on a big Spring period.
If it is true that it is coming out around March 08 then that may also be bad news for it. MGS is set to come out at that time too. The last thing Sony needs is 2 of it's biggest games knocking heads.
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That said, I will most likely be getting it on the 360 myself.