I'm quite amused that anyone would resort to using the PSP's horrible sales as justification for the low DS numbers; that's no excuse, yes it did even worse on PSP but that doesn't change the fact that it sold poorly on the DS.

lol, now that's a fresh excuse.  GTA bombed because the ds has too many games.  +1 for creativity!

Wait, are you just saying it's not worthy of praise, or claiming it's still terrible to sell that much? The former I can understand, since the game lost interest for me once I heard it didn't have the same feel of the GTA games I liked. The latter, no, especially to the "should have" comments, since that implies an obligation to the DS owners to buy it, not an obligation for the developers to make a game DS owners want to buy.

BTW, there are Mario, Gran Turismo, Halo, and even Pokemon games that sell significantly less than the main series. It's just a matter of selling something that most fans aren't used to, which is what this game certainly is.

"They could of made like 10 China Town War games with the money they spent on that."

How many threads are about Final Fantasy Chrystal Chronicles bombing?  Some, but not many... mostly because people recognize how those games aren't even remotley like the "real" final fantasy games.

Regardless of whether the game flopped or not (although it would have needed a big budget to flop), I can see what the real problem is.

GTA III ad -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmBQYxRrngQ&feature=channel

It uses some of the controversy to sell the game, but it also shows lots of gameplay, albeit with the dynamic angles that are more for the trailers than actual gameplay.

Vice City ad -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnW6_sAhwdE

Almost nothing but gameplay.

San Andreas ad -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNgZICe9nHY

Still almost nothing but gameplay.

GTA IV ad -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVZ8b75w6vM

Guess what?

Chinatown Wars ad -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSCv64dFuLw

A bunch of still drawings are not gameplay. And what little gameplay is shown is given these fractured screens that seem artsy, but also make it hard to see the gameplay. And what gameplay there is looks all from the top down, not a full environment you can explore.

That is now what people who bought GTA in the tens of millions, instead of a few million, have come to expect of the series. They aren't going to buy it just because it has GTA in the name. It's not the userbase's fault. It's Rockstar (although Leeds instead of North) for thinking they could get all artsy with the look of the series and not having as much action and mayhem.

I know what you mean. It's like talking to brick walls. That's why I'm going to pass on actively participating in this thread.

People, the PSP version was a LATE port, and technically it was underwhelming when you compare it to previous GTA PSP games. Its a flop IMO, no matter how we look at it, and Im certain that T2 was expecting far more from it...

It did a million true, but its a GTA game...

See...more failure to separate the game from the brand.

Is it low for brand? Yes.
Is it low for the game? No.

On the DS the sells frame time is different to any other platform so , good number , could it be better yes it could if they had more TV ADs fot the game AND if people who really likes GTA had bought the game but i think that they didnt just because they knew that if it had done well , sooner or later GTA would appear on the Wii too , so they just didnt pick up the game.( just a theory ^^)

And hey look they game bombed on the PSP too ...

Mind if i sit on the sidelines with you? The ignorance, immaturity and downright patronizing ways of some posters is truly breathtaking. And i like how those people are still ignoring posts from the likes of Viper1 and others, and simply reiterating the same things again and again.