Topic: GTA: Chinatown a failure?

This has been bothering me for awhile and people, both the gaming community and journalists keeps bringing up that GTA: Chinatown Wars bombed is sales. Is that really true? What's the number now 870,000? I don't know about you but that number seems pretty good for a series that has failed so many times on Nintendo systems. It didn't even have the same perspective but almost 900,000 people still bought the thing.

I know compared to an installed base of 113 million that still looks quite low. At the same time it was likely cheaper to develop for than the PSP GTAs.

I don't know how Take 2 themselves feel about the sells numbers but I recall a similar number from a THQ game on Wii. When de Blob sold up to 700,000 units THQ nearly jumped for joy and issued a press release citing how happy they were. This was ON WII, not DS.

So that brings me back to my question since de Blob had to be more expensive (art teams etc.) to develop than GTA. So again, how is GTA a failure?

Wasn't there a thread similar to this one? Just wondering.

Everyone's definition of failure is different, however I am guessing that GTA did not sell as much as expected

I guess if we see a sequel, we'll know.

@Iz2010

I posted a thread similar to this one about quality improving on Wii despite poor sells. I touched on the DS game GTA there. I decided to make a second thread to focus on the sells of GTA exclusively. It seems that with continued advertising, including the recent PSP release, more people are noticing the DS version and it has hit around 900,000 during the holidays.

I'd like to think that a huge company like Take 2 would know how the Nintendo business works. You don't get huge return in the short term, but, particularly with continued marketing, you make good profit in the long term.

And for all those that think they made a PSP version because the DS one undersold, that's highly unlikely. Take 2 has done that practice before with their Stories series; release on PSP then quietly release on PS2. An interview on IGN practically proved they had a PSP version planned in the first place.

If there's anything ugly about this situation it's that I wouldn't think that those sells numbers are QUITE high enough for Take 2 to even consider bringing a GTA to Wii for who ever was holding out hope for that. Wii audience is even more finicky than DS. People sell their Wii's if they consider themselves "hardcore," yet they still likely carry around a DS.

As for a sequel, it's practically been confirmed that we won't see one on any platform until 2011.

Not so sure if Chinatown Wars is a complete failure, because it got so much outstanding reviews though poor sales marred its initial expectations. Sales matters a lot but to say it completely bombed because of it sounds so objectified.

Here in Jamaica, the main complaint is the look/graphical element.
People ask me, "Why is the camera like that?" or "I'm better off with the PSP GTAs with the third-person view and the full 3D."
I don't like to say the same thing twice to them: citing the power of the DS, the direction of art style by Take-Two and the overall appeal it generated to others. Did they listen? Some did, some didn't Go figure.

I'm pretty sure they haven't gave it a fighting chance (mainly due to the notion that DS is kiddy or something), but the playing is believing inspiration from E3 2006 isn't really spreading as far as they want it to. I played, I believed. I wasn't one for a angled perspective but I played it, and I believed anyway.
As for the Chinatown Wars iPhone/iTouch versions, I heard they were delayed. Maybe the fact of low sales scared it. Or the low sales of the PSP version.

The PSP version was just as good as the DS original (had a new character and better graphics) but when they tried to mimic the little mini-games, they fell flat. So just saying, Chinatown Wars on a whole doesn't look like a complete failure. It's just that sales weren't so high as predicted.

I always thought the PSP was a more appropriate system for this game anyway

It wasn't as high as predicted, but it is far from an failure. You can only consider a game a failure if it sells less then 100,000 copies. So according to that, Madworld, The Conduit, Resident Evil: Darkness Chronicle, The House of The Dead: Overkill, and Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barabos Tresures are not failures. The only good game failure I can recall is Excitebots: Trick Racing.

@SSBFan
I still don't know if GTA was a failure from Take 2/Rockstar's perspective though. Their the ones that matter. Not some random number or what those journalists say. So I want to know from them and from that angle, is GTA considered a DS failure.

Some of the games you cited ARE failures according to their respective publishers. Madworld, Zack and Wiki, and Darkside Chronicles are all failures because the publishers practically labeled them as such. To me, 900,000 units even in the span of a year doesn't sound like a game that tanked. So what I wonder is, looking pass the press, looking pass community fanboyism, how does the PUBLISHER feel? If anyone has a link to any of their recent statements regarding the title, please let me know.

I bought a copy but I didn't like it as it was too hectic for a handheld game. It should have been dumb down a bit for on the go, IMO.

I finally finished the story missions this past week (i had put it aside for several months after playing it a bunch). Very good game that did have its issues (enemy targeting, some minor control issues), but nothing so bad IMO as to truly impact the game negatively. I think it's considered "a failure" in some circles simply because its a GTA-branded game, and it tends to be expected that GTA games will sell like mad.

Considering this was the first GTA game to not bore me halfway through the story and make me sell it (After shooting everything three times over) I would call it a huge success.
Something we should take note of is the odd fact that even though a game may have poor initial sales it can still develop a large cult following, increasing overall sales and public interest.

GTA is not my type of game in fact if it was Shenmue DS then where talking.

GTA: DS was a failure, considering the high sales figures the GTA series usually enjoys.

Of course, it was always going to be a failure. The DS is owned by more women than men, and the most prominent age demographic is the low teens. So GTA wouldn't appeal to the majority - both age, and gender-wise.

But yes, in terms of sales to install base, GTA was a massive failure.

Chinatown Wars was a fun throwback to all things GTA before GTA3. I dont think anything that sells nearly a million units is a failure. Im sure the PSP version was going to happen the day it started in develoment for the DS, just a later release. I dont see it as a failure. Rockstar had to know a stripped down version wasnt going to sell as well as GTA4 wich also wasnt as big a seller as they expected.

Chinatown Wars was a fun throwback to all things GTA before GTA3. I dont think anything that sells nearly a million units is a failure. Im sure the PSP version was going to happen the day it started in develoment for the DS, just a later release. I dont see it as a failure. Rockstar had to know a stripped down version wasnt going to sell as well as GTA4 wich also wasnt as big a seller as they expected.

Not really the DS certanly has a bigger female fanbase than any othrt console but I read some where that about 20%-40% of DS owners are female.

As a game it is fantisic (so not a failure there) and if it sold nearly a million copies that sounds pretty good to me.

Agreed. They practically confirmed on IGN that the PSP version was intentionally kept secret. There's an iphone version as well. But, yeah, doing some research should have shown that GTA DS wasn't going to sell EXCEPTIONALLY well. Personally, I'm surprised at the current numbers. I expected the game to stop selling long before years end even taking into account the long tail sells that most games on Nintendo consoles have.

It seems like Take 2 would've taken into account that they're publishing a game where the best selling 3rd party title on the platform is Cooking Mama.

Well, while you're "reading somewhere" some wildly inaccurate statistic with a 20% deviation (no legitimate statistic would be that inaccurate - either you or your "source" made it up), I'll stick to what Nintendo themselves tell me, in a capacity as a journalist.

The DS (and its various forms) is the first console with a larger female user base than male.

And to add to that, statistics say a good 35-40% of gamers are female.