Well I'm sure a lot of our members are highly anticipating GTA IV right now as it is undeniably a huge title with a large following and will definitely sell hardware. 

My question however is this:  Looking at what the ridiculous hype, advertising, and word of mouth marketing of Halo 3 accomplished...do we expect GTA IV to be more or less of a system seller?  Consider also that it is split amongst two systems and thus its impact is divided.

I ask because looking at it, there have been a number of large titles pointed to as "the turning poing" and when "the market landscape will change" but clearly that hasn't happened yet.  And I personally believe that if it is going to happen its going to be the mammoth title GTA IV that will do it.  Even split between two consoles I believe the impact of GTA IV is bigger for the PS3 than MGS4 or FF individually will likely be..yes its that damn big.

So what do you think?  Will the system seller GTA IV be bigger than Halo 3?  Will it change the market landscape for the rest of the generation? 

i don't understand the hype about gta 4 whats so special about it they all play the same the only difference i can think of is the graphical update is that the only reason this game is so special in being hype ot death.

The HD consoles in total will gain more than the 360 did from Halo 3 for certain. I think for the 360 alone it will be pretty close to Halo 3 in effectiveness, but it'll be almost as good for the PS3 as well. I'd expect close to two million HD consoles to sell within a month of GTA4's release, even with it being in a rather weak month. Possibly more depending on how soon the price cuts come and how much they cut.

I've heard that a lot and, even having only played a single GTA game (VC), I'm going to have to point out that's simply false.  It only serves to show that you don't play the games, as each one has had improvements over the previous games that isn't limited strictly to graphics.

Chichi => Sorry but calling Vice city a big improvement over gta3 is just failure. GTA4 is a big improvement over GTA3 that's for sure. But the many gta mades just to print money over the consumer's face aren't improvement : "hey you can now use a skateboard if you pay 50$ ".

I, also do not understand the hype for this game (I'm sure it will be a good game though) and saying gtaIV will sell more (consoles) than FF is also what I call failure. I know at least 20 countries which do not agree.

This game will deffenetly stop a few Wii buyers in their tracks when they find out it is not available for their system. I have been saying for a long time the HD consoles will take off with the release of this game. That was always the prediction from most analysts. The problem last year was that it got pushed back, and that really kept the spot light off of the HD consoles over the holidays. We will see a major market shift once this animal is released and the HD consoles each see a $50 price cut. I think the PS3 has a lot to benefit since this is a IP know for its PS2 roots, Blu-ray, and the Hype of MGS4 should be breathing down the neck of this games release.

Will sell well, even if the game doesn't look really that great (maybe it is).

Concerning the PS3/X360 shares, I think it all depend about MS marketing. They've spend 100 Millions to get exclusivity on specific content (and for this money, I guess this has to be "solid"). If they can push this fact on TV ads, things could be even between the two machines.


PS : KBG, Haze and Noir aren't exclusive ;)

It will surely have an impact on sales, but personally I'd NEVER EVER play a GTA on a console. The controllers suck so badly that it makes the game unplayable for me. No, it should be played with traditional PC FPS-setup.

I also wonder how do you think GTA IV  being sold on 3 consoles (including PC) willsell more console than FF being sold on only one ?