GTA IV Breaks Records, Drives Xbox 360 Forward

Finally, official data have arrived, proving that Grand Theft Auto IV was indeed a success (from a financial point of view this time, since we all know that everybody loves the game). Take Two has released the sales figures, stating that GTA IV has surpassed all-time entertainment records for day one and week one sales by dollar value. In other words, this means that the first week saw Rockstar's game sold to no less than 6 million people (with an estimated $500 million as income), while 3.6 million people bought the game on its opening day.

At the same time, Microsoft has released a press statement saying that Xbox 360 versions of GTA IV have outsold the PlayStation 3 ones, at least in the UK. And, even though this information comes straight from the creators of the Xbox 360 console, we do tend to believe they are pretty close to the real numbers, since the ELSPA is backing them up. This means that in the UK were sold 514,000 Xbox 360 copies while the PlayStation 3 version only sold 413,000 copies. Even more, Microsoft claims that the sales of their console have jumped 125%, "reflecting the popularity of this franchise on the platform". They're just forgetting that, actually, Grand Theft Auto was a PlayStation franchise.

"Grand Theft Auto IV has done phenomenally well this week with Xbox 360 version outselling PS3 in our stores," said Gerry Berkley, Trading Manager at Woolworths. "Xbox 360 console sales have seen a big uplift off the back of Grand Theft Auto IV launching. It's clear our customers see Xbox 360 as a great console for this incredible game."

Of course, Microsoft is only talking about the UK sales. Sony, on the other hand, claims that the PlayStation 3 version of the game outsold the Xbox 360 in Europe, so I only guess that we'll have to wait for the final, official data.