Dallinor said:
Not a chance. The PS2 dominated because it had a strong brand name, huge third party support, and dozens of quality franchises. It also had a years lead on the market. It would be foolish to assume the PS2 was only a success because of one game series. |
Beg to differ? Check out these numbers for just the PS2 version - released much, much earlier:
3.06 million - Liberty City Stories
11.60 million - GTAIII
14.20 million - Vice City
14.88 million - San Andreas
The series has sold nearly 44 million copies on the PS2 alone. On the Xbox? Barely 4 million.
When the PS2 locked in GTA exclusivity, that killed the Xbox. It was playing catch up after that. The only way to play GTA was on the PS2 for a long time. That is what moved systems. And, of course, folks bought games because they had the system already. GTA made the PS2 - without it, it's would have been a very, very close race, brand name and all.
If you remove the GTA numbers, you have GT3 and GT4, a Final Fantasy episode and Need for Speed holding the top 5 spots.
That is why MS paid $50M for the exclusive content - the series sells, whether folks hate it or not. It's money - the bottom line.
