April 17th, 2009

Chinatown Wars – A Failure?!?

Most of my friends say that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is the greatest GTA game ever, and I have to agree with them, at least when we talk about the PC versions. My opinion is that GTA 4 is also a great game, but its PC version is a big, huge, tremendous mistake. If you managed to play it on a computer, you probably know what I am talking about. If you haven't...get a console!

Since we're all in a crisis and budgets are being smaller than usual, the idea of playing GTA on a Nintendo DS sounds great, at least in theory. Unfortunately, practice kills the idea, because GTA: Chinatown Wars seems to be a "little big failure," although the game can't be considered bad at all.

In to the latest investor note from Cowan and Company, Doug Creutz wrote the following: "Despite a strong critical reception, Take-Two's GTA: Chinatown Wars sold a very disappointing 89,000 units in March, well below our more recent 200-250,000 estimate and far below the 400-450,000 we thought the title might sell upon its release."

Heh, it seems there aren't enough adults using the Nintendo DS out there, considering that initial estimates were, as you can read above, a few times higher than the actual sales.

In the end, it seems Nintendo remains a platform that doesn't allow intruders to come and get the gold...

"We believe the experiment was a worthwhile one for Take-Two, and still expect the title to be profitable (though likely marginally so). However, the disappointing first month sales reinforce our view that achieving meaningful success on Nintendo platforms remains a very difficult proposition for third party publishers," concludes the report.