Firstly, you may think the title of this thread is based solely on sales of GTA4 on both the 360 and PS3 and who will come up trumps.  Well it is and it isn't.

My main point is who will benefit overall from the release of GTA4?

Yes, the 360 may very well have more sales overall after the first bout, but what about sales of consoles for people wanting to play the game?

What about those people without a 360 and PS3 and want to play GTA4, what console will they buy?

This is just my opinion, but I can see Sony winning hands down on this front.  I can see more PS3 shifting due to the release of GTA4 and in the end may see more game sales after a year or so, but straight after release, I can see games sales being much better on the 360 at the start.

Who knows how it will affect the sales of both consoles, but I just cannot see the people that want to play GTA4 buying a 360 to play it on.  It's more likely to be PS2 owners that haven't upgraded and I reckon the PS3 is the more likely platform for them to play it on.

Also, in the most extreme case, could this be the first true sign of the death of the 360 and the taking off of the PS3?

The PS3 is already nearly 2 million ahead of the 360 based on a lifetime scale and with big titles such as MGS4 due out in a few months and what GT5P has already done and will do for the NA audience and then we can some big hitters coing in the 2nd half of the year...namely Killzone2, Resistance 2 and Motorstorm Pacifica to name a few, it seems that the 360 is resting everything on Gears 2 in November.

What do you think?

Here's what I think:

Sony will sell more consoles.

Microsoft will sell more copies.

GTA has always shifted way bigger numbers on PlayStation, so I think they won't lag that far behind on Xbox 360.

And yes, for those making the step to this generations of consoles with the release of GTA4, PS3 is the console to buy. Even if MS has extra content by the end of the year, PS3 has blu-ray (so you're all set for the next era of home entertainment) and a bigger line up this year. Hell, 6 weeks after GTA4, You've got frickn' MGS4 to play.

no Xbox360 + GTA4 bundle for the moment

= big problem for MS

MS has the price for them

BUT

Sony has the BR in NA
and Sony has the brandname in EU

There are no shortages of threads on this very same topic

360 will have a higher percentage boost, but since 360 is currently being outsold by the ps3, they will end up drawing worldwide for a while

It's hard to tell what will happen!

I think it is a given that the 360 will see higher game sales for GTA4 initially (due to the extra 6 million people who own the console) but i would imagine that Sony would see the greater % increase in hardware adoption since GTA and PS are well known together!

I would like to see Sony take this one but i think that MS have the price of the console too low for Sony to be able to win... But you never know!

Expect Sony to dominate in both software and hardware sales due to the impact of GTA 4 release.

What happened to the pre-GTA4 360 price cut in the US that people were so certain of? Everyone was predicting the price cut, combined with GTA4, would be the death blow to Sony. Is it still coming?

The hardware bump in the US will be similar, with the PS3 benefiting slightly more. Sony will own the EU. MGS4 and blu-ray will help Sony.

Launch week hardware: PS3: ~400k world wide. Xbox:~300K world wide
Software: 360 wins 2.25 to 1 in the US. Tied in Others.

Wow this thread is original.

*sighs*

Anyway I'd expect 360 to sell more copies. Unless Sony gets in hyper drive on advertising GTA 4 more than Microsoft. But.... I don't think that's gonna happen.