Jools on GTA: 89K is A-OK
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!
Tags: ds, grand theft auto chinatown wars, moon, Nintendo, renegade kid, youtube
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I'm not going to argue with someone who develops games for the actual system. I had a negative reaction, but that's because I was just comparing to console games, which, when you really think about it, have a much higher budget than portable games. To put it simply, Jools knows, I don't. It's just scary to think that not even .01% of DS owners have bought this game. It's also disheartening to hear that so far it's been pirated more than double the amount of sales (over 200,000 the last time I heard). I'm glad to hear that my prior beliefs can be disregarded, and there is definitely hope for a sequel.
Still, while I hear 2K Games talk about sales meeting expectations, I still feel that the name brand should have pushed it to sell more. Especially with 30-50 million DS units sold out there. You mean with all those units, it could not find 500,000 people that wanted to play it?
well not only piracy but dont forget the pirates on e-bay who sell half price copies are to blame for poor sales.
I also agree with Jools. I remember hearing 89K and thinking, “that's bad? How much does a DS game cost to make again?
You also need to make sure you don't confuse 200K pirated with 200K not purchased. People pirate things all the time for a number of (wrong) reasons, and I think only a very small number of those people would have bought the game if not given the option to steal it. It's the same deal with music. Not to mention the “try before you buy” people, not that they're a huge number either.
Then there's the fact that we're talking about first month sales. I bought the game yesterday. The game has a stigma attached to it as a top-down GTA. People are on the fence because of that and they need reassurance that this is a great game.
The DSi just got released in the US on April 5th which is almost 3 weeks after GTA:CW was released. Do you think people who don't own a DS yet were maybe were waiting to buy the DSi and then CW?
Also, heads up, I found a contest from GameStop to win a mob boss experience: http://www.gamestopchinatown.com
LeslieLu, you've made three comments on the site so far, and each has pushed that Gamestop link. You're obviously one of those people who's hired by a promoter to go to blogs and boards and comment to promote a product. You're not being subtle enough about this. I'm not jumping on you for trying to make a buck, because I've known people who do the same work you do, but if you commented on some of our other stories and didn't mention Gamestop, people might actually click the link when you do.
Friend code plz
Emailed.
Can you do anything online with Chinatown Wars? I thought it was only local multiplayer…
The DSi just got released in the US on April 5th which is almost 3 weeks after GTA:CW was released. Do you think people who don't own a DS yet were maybe were waiting to buy the DSi and then CW?
Also, heads up, I found a contest from GameStop to win a mob boss experience: http://www.gamestopchinatown.com
LeslieLu, you've made three comments on the site so far, and each has pushed that Gamestop link. You're obviously one of those people who's hired by a promoter to go to blogs and boards and comment to promote a product. You're not being subtle enough about this. I'm not jumping on you for trying to make a buck, because I've known people who do the same work you do, but if you commented on some of our other stories and didn't mention Gamestop, people might actually click the link when you do.
Friend code plz
Emailed.
Can you do anything online with Chinatown Wars? I thought it was only local multiplayer…