The Rockstar game is the biggest of the current generation

Jul 11, 2013 09:33 GMT  ·  By

The first official trailer for Grand Theft Auto V was launched earlier in the week and at least one analyst believes that the decision not to launch the game on next-gen devices might impact the release of the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4.

Lewis Wars, a research manager at IDC, tells GamesIndustry.biz that demand for the new devices from Sony and Microsoft was weaker than expected.

The analyst believes that the current economic conditions and the popularity of the Xbox 360 and the PS3 are also to blame for the smaller demand.

He states, “a lot of gamers are going to stick by their Xbox 360s, Wii/Wii Us, and PS3s at least until the 2014 holiday season, when the game catalog will be a lot bigger and some of the online kinks will have been worked out.”

In the meantime, GTA V will be one of the last big releases on the current generation and will become one of the biggest hits in the industry’s history.

Michael Pachter, an analyst working for Wedbush, believes that GTA V availability will not have a direct impact on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 sales.

He says, “Consoles launch at the same time as big games all the time, it's part of the ecosystem. If anything, I think that its lack of availability on next generation consoles could limit catalog sales of GTA next year, but it's pretty early to be making that call.”

The gameplay trailer of GTA V shows a fast and engaging open world experience with excellent graphics.

The game will be available on September 17 and recent job ads from Rockstar suggest that a PC version might also be in the planning stages.

The Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 are expected to arrive in November on major markets for the price of 499 and 399 dollars or Euro, respectively.