14 DAY TRIAL // As the wait for GTA IV came to a close last week and as a result of the furious marketing campaign for the game that only featured the Microsoft Xbox 360, even if the game is also playable on the PlayStation 3, a lot of people have been wondering which console would profit from the release of the game and how. I, myself, have been wondering how long it would be before Microsoft tries to spin GTA IV in its favor.
Well, my wait is over. Aaron Greenberg, director of product management for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live, has just gone on record saying that "What we've heard anecdotally from our retail partners is that the Xbox 360 version of the game is outselling the PS3 version by a margin of two-to-one. That mirrors what we saw with pre-orders, but it continues to hold true at retail, at least for the first couple of days. It's a great sign."
Greenberg didn't elaborate on the "great sign" part of his comment, but Sony quickly posted a statement that claims there's no real evidence that the Xbox 360 version of GTA IV is outselling the PS3 version, 2 to 1. Why the rush to counter a statement that was based on "anecdotal" evidence? Because the launch of GTA IV is seen as a real litmus test of the entire console market. If the Xbox manages a spike in sales which can be corroborated with the sales numbers of the Xbox 360 version of the game, Microsoft will pretty much have free hand in claiming that their console is more successful than the PS3. If the retail performance of the Xbox doesn't improve in the coming months and if the GTA IV copy is sensibly equal, then Sony can claim that only the multi million add campaign and the promise of DLC tilted the balance and that the PS3 is the console with the best performance.
Greenberg also said that "I think we'll have solid performance in April, but I think you might actually see a bigger impact in May." So the people at Microsoft are really betting hard on a sales spike for their console, which could manifest itself mainly in May. We'd better hold our collective breath until June to see how GTA IV impacts the console war.