GameStop: Grand Theft Auto IV on 360 outselling PS3 by 2 to 1

Some interesting news has just been delivered about Grand Theft Auto 4 via GameStop. Apparently the Xbox 360 version has been outselling the PS3 version by almost 2 to 1. Some were speculating that the PS3 may outsell the Xbox 360 version because of the minor technical advantages as well as GTA's past with the PlayStation. Others apparently knew that the larger install base plus the promise of future DLC would be enough to give the edge to the Xbox 360, in terms of sales.

Aaron Greenberg, Xbox Director of Product Management, had this to say:

"I think many people have been surprised to see how well GTA IV is selling on Xbox 360 given the history of the franchise. These sales results add GTA IV to a long list of franchises that have switched over from Playstation to find a new home on Xbox 360 similar to what happened last year with titles like Madden and Guitar Hero.

As you have covered on Level Up in the past, the majority of third party franchises are being developed first on our platform so they end up playing best on Xbox 360 and when you combine that with Xbox Live, we expect this trend to continue as more multiplatform releases hit the market. With that said, it is fantastic to hear that we beat PS3 two to one on Grand Theft Auto sales from a major retailer like GameStop."

Peter Dille, Senior VP of Marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment of America (SCEA), felt differently:

"GameStop probably does a little bit better with the early adopter crowd. There's a larger installed base right now on Xbox 360 than on PS3. So it's not surprising that there's going to be more selling on Xbox 360 than PS3. Having said that, we're really excited about the ratio. If I had an installed base advantage of 3-1, I wouldn't be crowing too much about a 60-40 sales advantage. We think it's not as high as what GameStop's telling you, if you look at [the full picture on] the national level.

They're outselling us, but not by that same margin, and it's because of their installed base lead. With an installed base lead that's close to 3-1, if you're bragging about a 60-40 software split, it's clear evidence that the Playstation 3 consumer is overindexing on GTA IV, and the Playstation brand loyalty that we've been talking about is bearing itself out in the marketplace as we speak."

Sounds like it's a bit more than just friendly competition for those two, doesn't it? Either way, I'm sure Rockstar couldn't be happier with the way things are going. With over 3 million sales already and $500 million made in the first week, this is bound to be one of the best selling games of all time. If it isn't already considered to be one, that is.

Source: Newsweek