The news that GTA: Chinatown Wars debuted to 89,000 copies last month was met with the Internet’s Own Withering Stare. The popular opinion is that 89k is abysmal for a DS game… and for a GTA game in particular. Riding sidecar to that sentiment is the notion that GTA:CW is pretty much universally lauded as an epic, deep, technically amazing DS game… that just did not motivate enough people to open their wallets.

Jools Watsham, who recently talked with Stephen about his latest DS release Moon, has posted a subdued GTA:CW mini-rant to his YouTube page. His take: 89,000 units is a great number in the DS world, where many games can’t scrap that together in three years.

To put it in perspective, if Moon or Dementium sold 90 thousand units in the first month or two – or even the first six months of sales – we would be reacting to that as that’s a runaway hit.

Watsham’s budget may not be as large as Rockstar’s and his releases may not have the crushing expectations that go along with being a Grand Theft Auto title, but it is interesting to hear a fellow developer stand up and offer perspective. Watsham figures that Rockstar was smart enough to properly gauge their investment versus anticipated sales, what with M-rated games being a slice of a slice of the overall DS market.

Hat tip to the commenters of Brainy Gamer for finding this video!