Take-Two's (TTWO) Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is dying on the shelves.

We noted earlier this week that analysts were split on how well the game would do when the NPD Group reported US videogame sales for March. Estimates ranged from 450,000 units sold on the high end to as low as only 200,000.

Now we have data, and the number is far worse than the most conservative estimates: 88,704.

So how did Take-Two flub a sure thing? Chinatown Wars was built for the wrong console. The title -- whose gameplay centers around drug dealing, cold-blooded murder, and sex -- is only available on the Nintendo DS, who's primary audience is children. Parents refused to let their kids play, and the adult DS audience just isn't that big.

Take-Two reps tell us in a phone call that they remain confident in the long-term success of Chinatown Wars, and they note March was difficult for all videogame publishers, with sales down 17% across the industry.

Chinatown Wars may yet find life down the road, but all in all a rare misstep from Take-Two. And the winner here might actually be Sony (SNE): The Chinatown Wars disaster will likely scare other publishers away from making new adult-themed games for the Nintendo DS. Some may redirect efforts towards Sony's PSP, which targets a somewhat older crowd.

http://www.businessinsider.com/take-twos-grand-theft-auto-chinatown-wars-bombs-2009-4

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars Sells 89,000

Back to the drawing board! The experiment of releasing mature content on DS has produced hugely disappointing results. DS gamers just don't play GTA it seems.

by James Brightman on Thursday, April 16, 2009

During this past week, analysts were speculating about how many units Take-Two's GTA: Chinatown Wars for DS actually sold. On the low end was EEDAR's Jesse Divnich who predicted sales of 200K and noted that mature titles on the DS carry "significant risk" for publishers. As it turns out, the game couldn't even break 100K – NPD has just confirmed with GameDaily BIZ that it sold a paltry 89K units (even more paltry considering the large DS installed base) and failed to make the top 20, let alone the top 10.

This has to come as a serious disappointment to Take-Two, which will likely be re-evaluating its Nintendo platforms strategy going forward. If GTA: Chinatown Wars was a major test case for whether the DS audience would support mature content, it's not very encouraging. If we had to guess, Take-Two and Rockstar will likely return to the PSP for its portable versions of GTA - something that should please Sony very much as it continues to ramp up its digital strategy on PSP. Imagine a PSP exclusive GTA with downloadable episodic content via PSN, much like the Xbox Live-exclusive Lost and Damned.

And GTA for Wii? If the DS and Wii audiences are anything alike (and there has to be a very sizable overlap), then Take-Two will probably not want to take yet another risk with mature content on a Nintendo platform. Expect plenty more Carnival Games and titles that are "family friendly."

 

http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/news/grand-theft-auto-chinatown-wars-sells-just-89k/?biz=1

OMG

Is this data from the NPD?

*sigh*

We'll see if this is credible.

Beyond ouch

VGChartz has it at ~155k for the period in the Americas, so maybe ~130k in US alone.

Isn't the average DS user in their fourties?!

I don't believe it.

Yeah, it's NPD data, and Business Insider are very reliable. I love how they even got Take Two to respond.

wow... almost unbelievable.