According to Wikipedia, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (14 million), Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (13 million) and Grand Theft Auto III (11 million) are in the top 5 for sales on the PS2 (San Andreas and Vice City are the top 2).

They are also all in the top 10 highest selling console games of all time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ng_video_games

I totally agree with you, I was just clarifying the other guys statement.

You could reverse the game line ups and I still wouldn't consider a $600 PS3.

The PS2 has a giant install base by the time the GTA series came out, so that doesn't necessarily show that it sold consoles, just that the games sell like hot cakes.

That said, there were several people I know who bought consoles for GTA games, so I do personally think it's as system seller.

It doesn't prove it's a system seller, but it proves that it's highly popular.

Oh it is definitely a system seller but it still boils down to my previous post. "Do I want to pay $660 to play GTAIV or $460?"

What percentage of GTAIV buyers are we assuming currently have neither a 360 or a PS3? It seems to me that the people that play these games are very likely to already have one or both of those systems. Just like I don't see Halo 3 as a system seller.

When GTA 3 came out, it was pretty unique. No one had ever seen a free roaming, cop killing, prostitute fucking game like it before. Nowadays, those games are a dime a dozen. So while people may have bought a PS2 to experience the uniqueness of GTA 3, will they still drop $400-$600 on a brand new console for basically the same game with prettier graphics? Will GTA 4 be as hot as GTA 3 was?

Highly popular = system seller IMO. Same thing. Popular games that people want is mostly why people buy a console.

No doubt there are people that wait for those games (I still haven't got a 360 because there aren't even 2 non-XBLA games I care about yet), but I'm guessing that many people have bought systems in anticipation of these popular games (Halo 3, GTAIV, FFXIII, etc). Those numbers obviously won't help build the post-game-release-sales-spike, if that matters at all to the systems manufacturer's or games dev/publisher's egos.

I don't know, with 5M+ pre ordered I think a lot of people that played Halo 2 on their friends system will finally break down and buy the XBox 360.

Chris

I wasn't talking copies sold, I was commenting on potential system sales. People who don't own a PS3 or Xbox360.

I agree with other comments that I don't know anyone that has bought a system just for a GTA game, and I personally don't care for the series (technically speaking, it did a lot right, it just wasn't very entertaining.) And it may be an overestimation, but I'll stick with my comments - whichever system has the better version of this game will see a larger increase in system sales, even if only for a week.

Yep, and like I said, I agree with you.

The only reason to buy a PS3 is if you want a blu ray player and a game machine. If you just want a game machine the $200 cheaper PS3 is clearly the way to go.

I don't know about that. For instance people that played all 3 GTA games on the PS2 may not have made the jump yet (especially the more casual gamers) since it's $600 and the game lineup is very thin.

Now, again I"m not sure how many will of these people will jump in at $660 to play GTA IV.

But at the same time, I'd have to imagine there's a good chance of a price drop this fall. Sony better, if they don't have a big holiday season they're pretty much doomed to a distant third place finish this generation IMO.

Considering that there were FIVE Grand Theft Auto games released "last gen," is there really going to be "system buying" excitement for the next one? In my mind, that kind of saturation of a series I'm a fan of would push the next one from a "system seller" to a "get when I have other reasons to buy the system."

But Vice City and San Andreas sold more than GTA3.

I received another Xbox Live Diamond card in the mail today. I totally forgot about this program.

I know more than a few people who picked up a PS2 right after they saw GTA3 in action. About half those people picked up Vice City, and only a couple of them picked up SanAndreas. Like taffer said, GTA was initially a huge system seller, because it was so unique. But now, the same game with different graphics isn't going to be as big a system seller as the initial one was - same with Halo, because it's a "been there, done that" game - the hard-core that are into it already have their systems, the people sitting on the sideline are waiting for something completely new to bowl them over like GTA3 did back then.

Doesn't mean they were system sellers as much as GTA3 was. The only reason they sold more is that there were way more PS2 owners out there than when the first one came out.

Unless they radically change the gameplay to make it standout (as it did when first released) I don't think there will be enough there. As someone else said, these sandbox games are now a dime a dozen. Also, the idea that is a system seller is kind of nullified by the fact that it is known to be multi-platform. Whereas before, GTA was considered a PS2 exclusive so you had to buy a PS2 to play it.

More TVersity questions for those of you that use it.

I have a lot of trouble getting the 360 to recognize the computer. When it does, most of the time it won't connect right away. It can take me hours to actually get it connected. Anyone else have this problem? Any suggestions?

Aren't all these "system seller" franchises a dime a dozen? How many FPSs are there? How many RPGs are there? etc.

But the true system sellers bring something new to the table. Halo was probably the first great console FPS that could compete with the best in the PC world, Halo 2 added online play, Mario 64 was a sequel but shifted the series to 3d, GTAIII was open ended, Gears of War added the cover element, and so forth.

GTAIV may need to add a lot new to get people who haven't bought a 360 or PS3 to shell out the $460 or $660 just to play it.

Ok, but I don't think ANY multi-platform game can really be a system-seller. The big exclusives -- Gears of War, Halo 3, maybe MGS 4 -- they'll sell a system. But to think that the aveage undecided consumer will say -- "hey, I read online that the framerate in GTA IV is more steady in the PS3 so fuck buying a 360 now", well, that seems highly improbable. If people really read reviews Spider-Man 3, Shrek The Third and Pirates At World's End would not have had big openings. And their respective games wouldn't have sold at all.

I disagree. If people want to play the game, they have to buy a system. My question was.. because the 360 is cheaper -- if people want to play GTA4, will they just buy the 360, at $200 cheaper.

I'd think most would, given that it also has a much larger game library as it's been out a year longer.

Only exception I see is for those that want a Bluray player.

Does anyone know if they have a larger amount of pre-sold Halo 3 order than consoles sold? I do kind of wonder how many people are going to go out and get both halo 3 and the 360 at the same time.