It was recently revealed that Take-Two and RockStar‘s Grand Theft Auto IV has sold over 15 million copies since its release in 2008. With the Liberty City Episodes DLC (finally) hitting the PS3 at the end of March, it’s time for GTAers to get excited about the next entry in one of the most popular video game series in the World and the announcement could come soon, according to one analyst.
So just how big is the GTA series? Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey believes that the series doesn’t even need E3 to announce the next installment.
there is building suspension for a pre-E3 GTA V announcement, although we expect nothing from Rockstar at this year’s official E3 event. GTA is one of those franchises that’s so huge that Rockstar doesn’t even need to do it at E3; Rockstar and Take-Two could hold their own event and announce the title in the days leading right up to E3, when many publishers often do hold separate press events.
Mr. Hickey even made a bold prediction– that GTA V will outsell GTA IV.
We think the next iteration of GTA for console can significantly outsell its predecessor, reflecting on the sales acceleration of the prior cycle GTA console iterations, an accelerating core gamer installed base and the most talented / motivated development team in the world, in our view.
Hey, it makes sense to me. As more and more people move from last-gen consoles (PS2, Wii) and into the HD age of consoles, fans of GTA III through San Andreas are going to want to graduate to the next-gen of GTA too.
I can already promise you one thing–with Take Two and RockStar already having a full schedule of releases for this year that continually get pushed later and later into the year, don’t even begin to think that we will see GTA V this year. Sorry to burst your bubble, but hey..I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up.
[Source]
