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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Would GTA sell better in Japan if it was on a handheld?

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Would GTA sell better in Japan if it was on a handheld?

Yes. Japan loves handhelds and 11 33.33%
 
No. The franchise isn't ... 10 30.30%
 
There's no way T2 will e... 5 15.15%
 
Go back to study OP, you lazy bum. 7 21.21%
 
Total:33
Darwinianevolution on 18 February 2016

Grand Theft Auto is one of the biggest franchises of the industry. It seems that, no matter where it goes, it sells gangbusters. But there's a huge difference between the sales of the games in EU and NA and and its sales in Japan. I know this is expected, considering GTA is a western-focused game, but still, I've noticed something interesting here.

 

Best-selling GTA games ordered by japanese numbers. Source VGChartz

Game Platform Year Genre Publisher Japan Global
Grand Theft Auto V PS3 2013 Action Take-Two Interactive 0.95 21.04
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City PS2 2002 Action Take-Two Interactive 0.47 16.15
Grand Theft Auto IV PS3 2008 Action Take-Two Interactive 0.44 10.49
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas PS2 2004 Action Take-Two Interactive 0.41 20.81
Grand Theft Auto III PS2 2001 Action Take-Two Interactive 0.30 13.10
Grand Theft Auto V PS4 2014 Action Take-Two Interactive 0.26 9.95
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories PSP 2005 Action Take-Two Interactive 0.24 7.70
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories PSP 2006 Action Take-Two Interactive 0.16 5.06
Grand Theft Auto IV X360 2008 Action Take-Two Interactive 0.14 10.98
Ghostbusters: The Video Game (DS Version) PS3 2010 Action Take-Two Interactive 0.13 2.05
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories PS2 2006 Action Take-Two Interactive 0.07 3.54
Grand Theft Auto V X360 2013 Action Take-Two Interactive 0.06 15.95
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars DS 2009 Action Take-Two Interactive 0.05 1.34
Grand Theft Auto PS 1997 Action Take-Two Interactive 0.04 2.32
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories PS2 2007 Action Take-Two Interactive 0.03 0.97
Ghostbusters: The Video Game (DS Version) X360 2009 Action Take-Two Interactive 0.03 2.55
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars PSP 2009 Action Take-Two Interactive 0.03 1.06

Total sales: 3.81m in Japan aprox.

What we see here is really interesting. If we assume these numbers are accurate, we see that no GTA game has ever reached 1m units sold on retail (although GTA V might accomplish it in a year or two). The sales are concentrated on PS devices, which shouldn't be surprising considering Nintendo doesn't have regular GTA games and the XBox brand doesn't sell over there. What is a more interesting fact is that the sales are concentrated on home consoles, and not handhelds.

PS1. 0,04m  PS2. 1,28m  PS3. 1,52m  PS4 0,26m  Xbox 360 0,23m  DS 0,05mm  PSP 0,43m

The PS2 and PS3 have the best numbers, while everything else have really low numbers. GTA handheld games don't even reach half a million combined, and in the case of the DS, its sales are surpassed by the 360. In Japan. (again, 360 has more GTAs, but I think it's worth point it out).

We can clearly see that it's the japanese home console audience the one that buys this games the most. But considering handhelds haven't had a mainline GTA game, only the top down ones and the PSP "Stories" spinoffs, the interest for the franchise has grown more and more with time, and the tech has improved enough to allow big GTA-like experiences on handhelds, I'm not sure if it could be true right now.

If the Vita or the NX handheld had, per example, a GTA V port, do you think the game would sell well in Japan? Or would it flop due to lack of interest? Would the handheld version sell better in the west than in Japan?



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Dr.Vita on 18 February 2016

Interesting topic!
I think a GTA on handhelds could sell really well in Japan, but the problem is that it would sell bad in the west (at least compared to home console GTA games). Japan sales alone are not important enough for Rockstar Games to make a handheld GTA imo. But maybe this will change in the future and GTA will get even more popular in Japan, who knows?




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Playstation Vita Media Create Sales (2014 vs 2015 vs 2016)
Playstation Vita Japan Retail Software Sales (2013 vs 2014 vs 2015 + 2015 LTD Edition)
Prediction: Nothing will outsell PSP anymore (except Playstation home consoles)

fatslob-:O on 18 February 2016

The question seems moot since current handhelds have no hope of running the latest GTA game and maybe even ones in the near future ...



zippy on 18 February 2016

I don't think the Japanese audience are ones that enjoy simulating violence, torture and shagging prostitutes.



GamechaserBE on 18 February 2016

Well GTAV is basically a million seller in Japan and one of the reasons it probably didn't is because of later release dates.



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Mr Puggsly on 18 February 2016
zippy said:
I don't think the Japanese audience are ones that enjoy simulating violence, torture and shagging prostitutes.

No, the Japanese play violent games and MGS has its fair share of tortue. The prostitues are more like a feature, not required to progress in the game. Japan also has its fair share of perverse software by the way.



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Mr Puggsly on 18 February 2016
fatslob-:O said:
The question seems moot since current handhelds have no hope of running the latest GTA game and maybe even ones in the near future ...

Not true, modern mobile devices can handle open world games we've seen on PS3 and 360.

They could also scale back to visuals to make them perform better on more mobile devices. Its the graphics that use up most of the resources, not the gameplay.

Anyhow, in regard to the OP. A GTA on Vita wouldn't be worthwhile. However, we'll eventually see ports of GTAIV and V on mobile devices.



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Darwinianevolution on 18 February 2016
Mr Puggsly said:
fatslob-:O said:
The question seems moot since current handhelds have no hope of running the latest GTA game and maybe even ones in the near future ...

Not true, modern mobile devices can handle open world games we've seen on PS3 and 360.

They could also scale back to visuals to make them perform better on more mobile devices. Its the graphics that use up most of the resources, not the gameplay.

I hadn't thought of mobile before. Mobile phones will probably be able to run really good ports of GTA (if they ever get buttons of those devices). Aren't the PS2 GTAs avalible for Android and iOS?



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Mr Puggsly on 18 February 2016
Darwinianevolution said:
Mr Puggsly said:

Not true, modern mobile devices can handle open world games we've seen on PS3 and 360.

They could also scale back to visuals to make them perform better on more mobile devices. Its the graphics that use up most of the resources, not the gameplay.

I hadn't thought of mobile before. Mobile phones will probably be able to run really good ports of GTA (if they ever get buttons of those devices). Aren't the PS2 GTAs avalible for Android and iOS?

Yeah, phones have all the PS2 era GTA games. They are great ports as well with some improvments.

In fact, GTA: San Andreas on 360 is a just a port of the Android/iPhone version.



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Ruler on 18 February 2016

maybe but would it be worth to develop an extra version for handhelds?



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