I'm impressed at how high the sales were for the PS3, what more can I say? The statistics suggested that the console's boost wouldn't get anywhere close to the level that it did. Sometimes you're right, sometimes you're wrong. The only shame comes from trying to deny it when your predictions go awry. I was definitely wrong on this one.
This does firmly establish two things, however:
1) Grand Theft Auto is the biggest game of the generation for PS3/360, end of story. It's difficult to imagine another title having the same hardware boost.
2) Grand Theft Auto 4 is also likely to be much more front-loaded than its previous installments. As a general rule, the larger the hardware push from week 1 sales, the more front-loaded a game tends to be. The ultimate example of this is the Final Fantasy games in Japan, which often spiked hardware by 80-100% - and also sold 2/3 of their lifetime total in the first week. We may be seeing something similar here. To me, this is the biggest question going forward: whether the sales dynamics of the GTA series have changed from the lengthy "legs" of the PS2 games to a more front-loaded model that we've often seen with big titles on the 360/PS3.
And once again, congratulations to the PS3 on some really stellar sales this week. The unbelievable Wii sales shouldn't take attention away from the fact that the PS3 sold over 350k on a non-holiday week; the previous such high was only 200k!
End of 2008 totals: Wii 42m, 360 24m, PS3 18.5m (made Jan. 4, 2008)
