FEATURE
GTA IV smashes sales records
Take-Two proves crime does pay.
By Mike Smith
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Take-Two coughed up Grand Theft Auto IV's first-week sales numbers early this morning, and as predicted, they're absolutely huge. The free-roaming crime drama racked up over $500 million in worldwide sales over its first week, setting a new record for interactive entertainment. The previous record holder, Halo 3, "only" mustered about $300 million.
GTA IV's whopping tally corresponds to about six million copies, of which a touch over half were sold on the game's April 29 launch day. In a press release, Take-Two's chairman, Strauss Zelnick, heralded the game's release as "the largest launch in the history of interactive entertainment" and went on to claim it has surpassed any movie or music launch to date.
We're not going to argue. Iron Man's May 2 launch, heralded as a tremendous success, sucked up about 100 million of our hard-earned dollars over the weekend, and even current box-office kingpin Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End sailed away with a mere $142 million. Even though GTA IV's producer, Leslie Benzies, was recently quoted in The Times estimating the game cost approximately $100 million to develop -- making it the most expensive game ever made -- today's announcement should put a smile on the face of every Take-Two employee. |
