AfterDawn: News

Nintendo defends GTA: Chinatown Wars sales figures

Nintendo has come out to defend the sales figures for Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, released recently for the Nintendo DS portable platform. The sales figures for March were met with disappointment from analysts and many in the industry who expected the game to be incredibly successful like everything else in the GTA series. Nintendo has responded however, saying that the sales are "in line" with other AAA DS titles.

Steve Singer, vice president of licensing for Nintendo of America, said that the 89,000 units sold of the game was about standard for a successful third-party title on the platform, referring to Call of Duty 4's DS version which sold 36,000 units in its first month. GTA: Chinatown Wars was predicted initially by analysts to sell 2 million units this year.



Investment firm Cowan and Company said that the March sales for the title were a disappointment, and has cut its projections to 500,000 units for 2009.

Written by: James Delahunty @ 20 Apr 2009 19:57

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• 5 comments

• CJ007

  Guess mommy and daddy wouldn't buy this game for their boys and girls, LOL. This game should have been port over to psp which have more adult base gamers. By the way this game is amazing.

  20.4.2009 21:23 #1

• inagasake

  The DS has lots of adult owners too though. The GTA series just isn't suited for the DS platform. If I want to play GTA, why would I get a DS version? That's not to say the DS is inferior. But I'm looking for a different experience on the DS than a home console. And it's possible that most DS owners feel the same way? That's why I don't have a PSP. The PSP is like a portable PS2. It doesn't have a separate identity. Homebrew is the biggest selling point of the PSP but yet SONY tries everything in their power to kill the homebrew community.

  20.4.2009 22:54 #2

• samus250

  Homebrew is also one of the major reasons why the DS and the Wii are so popular.

  21.4.2009 15:32 #3

• LeslieLu

  I have a hunch some hardcore gamers are waiting for the DSi to be released before they buy GTA: Chinatown Wars. But an even more pressing issue is that Nintendo has GOT to find a way to make it harder to hack DS games if they want to make money. Why buy it when you can get it for free. The game is really, really awesome though, in my humble opinion.
  
  And heads up, GameStop’s got a Chinatown Wars contest to win a “mob boss experience” on their site, http://www.gamestopchinatown.com. Airfare for 4 to New York, private limo, hotel, model entourage, VIP room at a club, bodyguard and $5000 in cash. It’d be a pretty sweet deal, especially in this recession. Free to enter.

  22.4.2009 10:26 #4

• lubricant

  well i guess the analysts were wrong, werent they?

  26.4.2009 01:37 #5