First they earned an unprecedented streak of perfect review scores. Now Rockstar Games has some even bigger numbers to boast about: the sales of "Grand Theft Auto IV."
The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 crime adventure in Liberty City sold 6 million copies in its first week of release, exceeding analysts' predictions, according to a report in The New York Times. The paper reports that the game took in $500 million in sales, and sold 3.6 million copies on its first day of release.
Those figures trump previous the previous top performance of "Halo 3," which netted $300 million in sales in its first week. In the U.S., "Halo 3" sold 3.3 million first-week copies, according to sales tracking firm NPD. (Worldwide figures for the game's first week were not available at press time.)
Giant sales of Rockstar's game had been expected. In March, financial analyst Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities predicted that "GTA" publisher Take Two Interactive would ship 6 million copies, a massive initial delivery of games.
Most competing publishers steered clear of releasing games against "GTA IV," with the notable exception of Nintendo, which slated its latest "Mario Kart" game for release on the Wii just two days before the Rockstar epic. The "Mario Kart" series has been historically among Nintendo's best-selling franchises, and this new game isn't playable on systems that play "GTA IV" — and vice versa.
Last week, members of the movie industry expressed concern that "GTA"'s success would cost the movie "Iron Man" some viewers. While it's not clear to what extent that happened, given that the film still raked in more than $100 million, the "GTA IV" figures trump all movies on that top-10 list.
Publisher Take-Two is hopeful that high sales of "GTA IV" will increase the company's value and improve the company's bargaining position with competitor Electronic Arts, which has been trying to purchase the "GTA" publisher with a stock buy-out during the past several weeks.
"GTA IV" sold in two editions: a basic $60 game-only version and a $90 version that included an artbook, music CD and duffel bag.
The previous console installment of the series, the 2004 "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," has sold 21.5 million copies, according to publisher Take-Two.
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