Rockstar scratching Nintendo's back?

On March 17th Rockstar's eagerly awaited Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars will be released to the Nintendo DS. Only two weeks later, the Nintendo DSi will storm its way onto American markets.

Rockstar scratching Nintendo's back?

These two events seem unrelated and yet Rockstar is confident that they will be mutually beneficial to both of the interested parties.

"The launch of a new piece of hardware into the DS family will garner a new level of buzz and get some more hype going for the system," says Rockstar UK General Manager Neil Stephen. "I think anyone releasing high profile titles on the DS will definitely benefit from that. We also think there is the potential to attract lots of new owners into the market, particularly from our fans who may have played our GTA titles on the PSP."

It is true that big games being released around the time of a new system launch can certainly benefit from it. If someone is a first time buyer for a system, they will want a game or two to go with it and the name recognition of GTA will certainly net it some sales in that regard.

However, some of Rockstar's logic seems a little strange. Do they believe that there is a large enough audience of people who only own the PSP instead of a DS just because of the portable GTA games to significantly impact the amount of sales for the DSi? Are they right and will whatever profits Nintendo expects to make skyrocket just so GTA fans can get their virtual carjacking fix?

What do you think? Is this an offer GTA fans can't refuse?

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eday_2010

I'm interested in getting the game, but not the DSi. As far as I am concerned, the two have nothing to do with each other. I am not sure how many people are out there who will buy a DS just for this game, though.

StormKing

Chinatown Wars looks pretty good, but it's not going to boost DS sales by much...if at all.

superstoned

they should realease a gta bundle pack for the dsi. i bet that will boost alot of sales

superstoned

eday_2010 wrote:

I'm interested in getting the game, but not the DSi. As far as I am concerned, the two have nothing to do with each other. I am not sure how many people are out there who will buy a DS just for this game, though.

maybe they will release some form of download content since the dsi will be capable of that..

wutisupmon

I'll read the review first, but I am verrrryy interested. My DS has been lonely of late.

slime

I've played and beat both Liberty city and vice city stories on the PSP, an extremly scaled downed Grand Theft Auto on the DS seems a little crazy because Rockstar needs space for their software and I just dont see it doing any justice for th DS. The WII maybe because its selling and they would have made a ton off of it. That also depends on drive space, the WII though would have made a better fit.

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