...and looking at the chart is still going well...considering that this is the first GTA on a different platform, with a different type of users is not a huge number but still a very good number....also is still selling better on DS than on PSP....where are the "hardcore" gamers?

No you didnt.

Btw you completely ignored my whole point. Let me put this clear for you:

Why did you SUDDENLY changed your standards when you were talking about GTA:CW vs. PSP go! (Profit vs. sales)? If you are saying that X game or X console isnt a flop because it is making profit then why don't you use this reason for Y game or Y console?

We don't know dev costs for PSP go! but we can guess it just like we can guess that a DS game which have sold more than a million units (and is still selling well) is making profit. Doesnt sound right to you?

Wow, people really need to chill.

GTA: CW is a flop, I don't really care if it made money or didn't (I would assume it didn't).

It's a flop because it didn't sell well for a GTA game, period. Not that 1.5 million is bad, but it's just not...great.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not being a fanboy with my following statements, they are my opinion based on some facts.

The game flopped on the DS probably because of the style (graphical and gameplay styles) and potentially some other factors (demographics, lots of other games to chose from, lack of marketing, etc.). I say it flopped because it's a GTA game specifically designed for and (seemingly at the time) exclusive to a system and it sold to a very very small percentage of owners of that system.

For the record, Lair, Haze, Soul Calibur Broken Destiny and lots of other Sony exclusive games are also flops, so, don't go there.

The game flopped on the PSP because, to be consistent, the game is selling at roughly the same percentage as the DS game, so, flop. It probably flopped for some slightly different reasons. Obviously the game play and art style reasons are the same. Some of the game play elements just don't work on the PSP that well as they did with the stylus. Also, the game came out long after people were exposed to it on the DS and thus, perhaps people were less willing to buy it for the PSP based on the GTA name alone. So, the PSP game flopped for the similar reasons as the DS version, just swap out "demographics" with "not the best of ports."

Overall though, the game is a flop because no one liked the game not because of a system it was on (I mean seriously? What kind of logic is that? I mean I could see if a system had like 80%+ of a certain demographic that things may not sell, but no one can possibly believe any system doesn't have a large spread).

I never once claimed that CW was a profit flop, did i? I said we can't PROVE if it is or isn't.

I didn't suddenly change it. I said it WAS a flop in sales, then someone else mentioned profits in regard to CW... It was only natural to talk about it in both regards.

And i'm sure there was a diagnosis of the costs of PSP Go. I found something from a quick search, but it's from Pachter(lol). Here. I'm pretty sur ei could find more. Apparently, Sony are making a LOT of money per PSP Go.

*sigh*

You know what Carl, I give up. You're a master in the art of not answering a clear question. Because this is what you did, you didnt gave me a clear answer to the question about why you SUDDENLY (and yes you did) changed your standards (or definition) of what is a flop.

But it wasnt natural to talk about PSP in both regards? You see what I mean?

Whatever, don't loss anymore time trying to escape the question, just ignore this post, it will be better for both of us.

I've answered it, you just don't like the answer you got.

I didn't bring profits up, or the PSP... Someone else did (i think it was you, actually). I answered them. That is all. Then we went (or tried to get) back to the discussion of GTA:CW sales...

But fine, let's see if you can stay away like i couldn't

I tried to point out that talking about the profitability of Chinatown Wars is pretty much impossible way back in the thread. Budget price around the holidays means each copy sold was probably making about half of what it would have at release. On the other hand, the game probably didn't have a huge budget -- though it was advertised a good amount. Plus, porting a 2D game to iPhone and PSP probably wasn't too hard. The game has topped the App Store charts, so it must be doing well there. Plus, we don't even have PSN sales for it, which could add significantly to the total judging by those GT psp sales (which I'd never actually heard about before seeing them in this thread).


I doubt there are many games that go down to clearance price within several months of release and are clearly successful in the publisher's eyes and profitable. Around breaking even, sure. Usually that means retailers are still trying to sell off old stock and not ordering any new copies, which means the game failed to meet with retailers' and publishers' expectations and have normal sell through. I could be totally wrong, though. I'm sure every publisher has their own strategies.

Rockstar already stated it made a profit. Long time ago.

It was believed to have hit profitability at ~200k units.

You keep saying that games purchased at discount affect the publishers profit. It doesn't, the only people who lose a cut at retail, are retailers.

Remember, these games are purchased before they're sent to the stores, they aren't sold on consignment.

(citation needed)

And also, why didn't anyone bring this up earlier in the thread, rather than argue back and forth for hundreds of posts?  Kind of a big deal.