Analyst: "Consumers Are Just Drowning In Shooters"

Oh, how true it is, regardless of how good some of those shooters might be.

We asked EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich about Grand Theft Auto V, and whether or not it could reclaim the sales crown from current industry blockbuster Call of Duty. And while he wouldn't hazard a guess as to GTAV's release date or coming-out party, he did say that despite CoD's stranglehold on the market, consumers are begging for a change. We've heard something similar from our readers. Says Divnich:

"Call of Duty provides a differentiating experience than Grand Theft Auto, and vice versa, but both are definitely the top dogs in their market segment. The market has been absent of a high-quality sandbox title for a while and that has resulted in a migration in sales from sandbox action titles to modern war first-person shooters. But that works in GTA’s favor. Consumers are just drowning in modern day shooters right now and I believe the next 16 months present an excellent timeframe for a high-quality sandbox game. My prediction? GTA V’s sales will be of epic proportions."

It must also be noted - even if it's of little consequence - that due to the inordinate number of bugs and glitches experienced by Black Ops players, some have predicted this bitterness would translate to lower CoD sales this year. Also, analyst Michael Pachter apparently agrees with Divnich in saying that GTAV might hit 20 million in worldwide sales.

But there's one fact that does indeed ring true- the shooters are everywhere these days.

3/30/2011 3:04:58 PM Ben Dutka

http://www.psxextreme.com/ps3-news/8807.html

GTAV will be lucky to sell half of what COD sells.

Agreed. I got nothing aganist them but I really am tired of shooters being the main attration all the time. I mean, Enough is Enough. When will the industry take a few more risk and not just play it safe with over the top shooters. I hope bad sales on crysis and homefront bring about a realization that we don't need shooters every goddamn month or sequels every year.

Coming from someone who has the main antagonist from a FPS as their avatar.

I think people would rather pay for something familiar then something different.

At the moment he is probably right.  Killzone 3, Bulletstorm, Homefront, Crysis 2.  All in just a little over a month.  Though sales still seem fairly strong, so who knows.

GTA IV is still in the top ten games played on xbox live.  Granted not all of those are in the multiplayer I believe, but it is probably substantial.

The HD console with the bigger base (x360) and the country that seem to prefer shooting lots of people in a game above all else (the USA)  means money is being made so I don't see it changing anytime soon.

I am not saying Europeans don't like shooters because nothing can be further from the truth but as long as the current biggest market (NA) does the above stands.

I'm sick of shooters, can't play any of those anymore except the ones like Mass Effect 2

Sheeps will just keep on buying whatever the big corps throw at them.

No quality sandbox games? The analyst totally disregarded Red Dead Redemption and Assassin's Creed Franchise. As others have said shooters sell because of the community aspect of those in online multiplayer. Big box games sell because of the brand they have created. Everyone who talks about GTA4 says it was somewhat dissapointing and they are right but as the next one comes, they'll run and get it. It is the same with Call of Duty as Black Ops had the worse first 2-3 months on the ps3 and here it is a few months later becoming the best ever game sold on the console. Bizzare.