Game Impact

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

One thing we know for sure, this game won’t sell more copies than Grand Theft Auto IV. Or will it? See, its going to be very interesting when Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is released, because one thing we know for sure is that we really don’t know.

Over 100 million DS gaming consoles have been shipped, which might suggest that Chinatown Wars could break sales records based on how other titles in the GTA franchise have done in the past. But, the Nintendo DS is known as a family oriented gaming system. The fact is, a large population of DS gamers are boys and girls under the age of 18. GTA: Chinatown Wars is a mature game, intended for gamers 18 and over, so it will be more difficult for anyone under the age of 18 to purchase the game. Of the DS gamers over the age of 18, a significant number of them illegally download games for their DS. This is indeed a factor because you cannot illegally copy games for the Playstation 3 or Xbox360 - at least not as easily. According to the ELPSA Intellectual Property Crime Unit, around 90% of North American DS users illegally download DS games. Personally, I think those numbers are high. Really high. But, even if those numbers are not accurate, its still a big enough deal to make note of. Has Take Take put Chinatown Wars between a rock and hard place?

The bottom line is, this game is getting great ratings. According to Gamespot.com, the average critic score is now at a 9.5 out of 10. And have you seen the trailers? I commend Take Two for taking the effort to make very good use of the DS capabilities. Plain and simple, if it is a good game, there are those who are going to buy it. There will be parents who will buy the game for their kids (how bad can a DS game be for my child?), there will be pirates who will be proud to fork over the dough to actually hold a game in their hands once again, and who knows - maybe Grandma and Grandpa who were just introduced to the DS last year, will now want something a little more edgier and exciting than Brain Age…

We are giving a Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars an impact score of 72 out of 100. In comparison, GTA IV would have around a 99/100. We are also projecting that Chinatown Wars will become a mature hit on the DS by selling 3 million copies by years end, protest groups become more active in the next couple of weeks, and another kid jacks his parent’s car and drives to the local grocery store to buy his favorite cereal…

Next week we will be featuring Majesco’s Gardening Mama for the DS!

IMPACT SCORE: Impact Score is a scoring system based on historical sales results, trends, game reviews, hype, opinion and facts. This system rates the impact a game might have for its company in terms of sales, reception, recognition etc. A game can score anywhere from 100 points to zero. A game that scores a 100 should have the biggest of impacts on its’ company while a score of zero would be a game that should do virtually nothing for its’ company.

© 2009 Video Game Stock | GAMETRADERDAILY.