Grand Theft Auto V sold $800 million on launch day

I was watching the news today, and apparently a new video game named Grand Theft Auto V is out. Who knew? It seems pretty popular too, as Take-Two has announced it raked in the highest first-day sales in not only the GTA series, but the company's entire history too. With estimated sales of over $800 million, it should even break Activision's four-year streak of boasting that the new Call of Duty is the year's biggest entertainment launch.

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I was watching the news today, and apparently a new video game named Grand Theft Auto V is out. Who knew? It seems pretty popular too, as Take-Two has announced it raked in the highest first-day sales in not only the GTA series, but the company's entire history too.

With estimated sell-through of over $800 million, it should even break Activision's four-year streak of boasting that the new Call of Duty is the year's biggest entertainment launch. Cod Blops 2 hit $500 million on its first day last year, up $100m from the game before.

"All of us at Take-Two are thrilled with the initial response to Grand Theft Auto V. Once again, the team at Rockstar Games have outdone themselves, setting the entertainment industry's new standard for creativity, innovation and excellence," Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said.

And that's $800 million without launching in Brazil or Japan yet. Or on PC, right Rockstar? Right?

Take-Two says that over 8,300 North American stores opened at midnight for the launch.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    September 18, 2013 12:20 PM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Grand Theft Auto V sold $800 million on launch day.

    I was watching the news today, and apparently a new video game named Grand Theft Auto V is out. Who knew? It seems pretty popular too, as Take-Two has announced it raked in the highest first-day sales in not only the GTA series, but the company's entire history too. With estimated sales of over $800 million, it should even break Activision's four-year streak of boasting that the new Call of Duty is the year's biggest entertainment launch.

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      September 18, 2013 12:24 PM

      GTA V sold 1.57 million copies in UK in the first day: http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/gta-v-is-the-fastest-selling-game-in-uk-history/0121278

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      September 18, 2013 12:35 PM

      While cool, mega budget games like this end up hurting the industry, for nobody will have the 265million dollar budget to make a comparable detailed gameworld and the gameplay that comes with it. This game is Titanic, Avatar, the only reason its made is its being sold on the history of its creators and the history of the franchise

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        September 18, 2013 1:18 PM

        And it's a fine history full of accomplishment. so it deserves it.

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        September 18, 2013 1:20 PM

        did titanic and avatar do the same thing to the movie industry?

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          September 18, 2013 4:03 PM

          avatar was the iceberg that sank the movie industry

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            September 18, 2013 4:46 PM

            actually, it might just be. The budgets for pictures are out of control. Shitty rom-coms and shitty cartoons are costing 100m+ and flopping left and right. Every studio has a slate of movies chasing the Avatar train but none of them are coming even close.

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              September 19, 2013 12:38 AM

              2015 will be the royal rumble. The release slate for that summer is absurd - there is an unsustainable (imo) number of big budget, action-packed films being released then. Maybe after that we'll see a shift towards some more modesty in hollywood.

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            September 18, 2013 4:55 PM

            Shiny looking iceberg, not that interesting, tbh. Not enough original unedited Star Wars in it.

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        September 18, 2013 1:24 PM

        No.

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        September 18, 2013 1:54 PM

        wat

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        September 18, 2013 2:01 PM

        All sequels are being sold on the history of it's creators and the history of the franchise. grand theft auto is the equivalent of a summer movie blockbuster, are those big budget movies hurting the movie industry as well? All this does is show how much money can be maid in videogames and will bring about more studios opening. More games. All this does is bring videogames more into the mainstream.

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        September 18, 2013 2:01 PM

        You have a good point, but.. what if this is the straw on the camel's back that pushes more developers to be independent? Good games doesn't have to be a big-budget monster.

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          September 18, 2013 2:04 PM

          He doesn't have a good point.

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            September 18, 2013 3:24 PM

            Yeah sorry just 12 years in game dev here, not some blind devotion to a franchise

            God I can remember when this place used to have rational, intelligent people
            I can pinpoint it to a few years ago when tards like you started multiplying

            Back to blues for me

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              September 18, 2013 3:26 PM

              12 years in an industry can also make you blindly devoted if you start being heavily biased for or against something.

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              September 18, 2013 3:26 PM

              Don't kill yourself they're only videogames.

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              September 18, 2013 4:06 PM

              I'm sure there are people with 12 years or more in the industry that disagree with you so years on industry doesn't make you right or wrong.

              However there probably has never been a time as good as now for small developers. There are many small developers finding success, there is lots of middleware, tablets, phones, the number of pcs out there, and the internet make it easier than ever for small developers to distribute and self market their game. The internet also makes it easier to work with people far away. We have steam, and the digital stores on consoles, and now kick starter to fund projects.

              There has never been a better time for small game developers.

              And big developers can succeed as well. If anything I would be more worried about big AAA developers.

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              September 18, 2013 4:32 PM

              Sounds like a certain 12-year industry vet isn't doing so hot!

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              September 18, 2013 5:04 PM

              Try to bring logic and reason when you attempt to make a point. Emotion and insults just distract from whatever point you're trying to make.

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              September 19, 2013 6:21 AM

              As a developer you should like that fact that more people than ever are playing games thanks to these big titles. We all have to start somewhere just like they did, they just happened to have a few hits because they make good games like Lemmings and GTA.

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          September 18, 2013 3:26 PM

          No but it builds an expectation in gamers minds of what is AAA, in this case its a 265million dollars monster that redefines the genre, and like I said, I cant wait to play it, Im happy for my EX-coworkers (oops what does THAT mean)

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            September 18, 2013 3:31 PM

            [deleted]

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            September 18, 2013 4:18 PM

            So this game is bad for the industry because other companies can't compete with it? Would you prefer that Rockstar put out a game that wasn't as good as GTAV just for "the sake of the industry"?

            Some of the most talked about and successful games over the past few years have been made by independent teams on shoestring budgets. I don't see how GTA V is going to make those games seem weak by comparison.

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            September 18, 2013 4:20 PM

            GTAV redefines the genre?

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            September 18, 2013 4:46 PM

            Let me guess: your ex-coworkers worked on red dead redemption.

            If that is the case, bummer.

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          September 18, 2013 3:59 PM

          Everyone knows games don't have to be big to be good.

          There are small games that are good, and big games that are good.

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        September 18, 2013 3:47 PM

        [deleted]

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          September 18, 2013 3:57 PM

          Right, gamers expect every game to be GTA.

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            September 18, 2013 4:31 PM

            God dammit where is my open world DOTA!?!

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              September 18, 2013 4:47 PM

              Good lord man it's bad enough I have to go into Roshan's pit to buy stuff from the Secret Shop. I'm too lazy for a map bigger than that.

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                September 18, 2013 4:54 PM

                Pay 1000 gold to upgrade courier to mountable courier.

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            September 19, 2013 9:58 PM

            Pretty much fucking idiots, or thats the vocal ones anyways

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          September 18, 2013 4:35 PM

          because the argument is dumb. It's not too different from saying "Because GTA is SO AWESOME nobody in their right mind would want to play anything else."

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          September 18, 2013 5:04 PM

          You would think that businesses would be able to avoid that, but then you see all the companies that fell apart try to make the next big mmo

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        September 18, 2013 3:51 PM

        Not every game needs to be so big. In fact, very few do.

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        September 18, 2013 4:35 PM

        I think you're reaching. There is plenty of room for 'smaller', niche players in the gaming industry just as there is the movie industry. Not every game has to have a $200 million dollar GTA/CoD-level budget to be successful but 'success' has to be measured relatively and realistically.

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        September 18, 2013 6:34 PM

        They deal with % ROI tho....so even tho not all titles even come CLOSE to these numbers, smaller projects can be very profitable as well.

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      September 18, 2013 12:36 PM

      Rockstar aka The Untouchables. Good for them, this is amazing. Shows how profitable the game industry can be, this is with an estimated 13 million copies. If games were half as popular as movies this industry would be rolling in mountains of cash.

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      September 18, 2013 1:11 PM

      Congrats, holy shit that is a lot of Cheddar.

      Time to roll out the big guns and announce the PC, PS4 and Xbox1 version for the game, then they will make freaking billions!

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      September 18, 2013 3:58 PM

      Downloading now on PS3 from PSN. Couldn't resist any longer.

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      September 18, 2013 4:51 PM

      Is this the one where they discover how to make a game with a story that's consistent with gameplay? I mean, GTA IV was horrible in that regard. Nico was murdering people left and right and then talking about how he didn't want to kill people.

      In other news, I beat Saints Row IV finally. That's a great game.

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        September 18, 2013 5:20 PM

        GTA V is a better game.

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          September 19, 2013 1:45 AM

          I don't think GTA V is a better game than SR IV. I think it's a better presentation, with more compelling characters and story. But SR IV is probably one of the more pure fun games I've played in a long time. There's never a time when I'm not just having a blast while playing it.

          I kinda agree with the GB guys that GTA games don't even feel to me like games that need to be open world, given what their strengths are.

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            September 19, 2013 5:33 AM

            I think comparing the two as if they are in the same genre is kinda weird at this point. They set out to do completely different things, and are both super fun to me for very different reasons.

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              September 19, 2013 5:08 PM

              saints row figured this out. the new one has more in common with hulk ultimate destruction than GTA.

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      September 18, 2013 4:51 PM

      Gimme them duckets!

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        September 18, 2013 10:18 PM

        Lolll I keep waiting to hear that line everytime I clown a fool

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      September 18, 2013 5:44 PM

      Meaning $800 mill retail RS in retail-priced shipped copies, not in copies yet bought by customers, or $800 mill to RS after retail/physical/license/distribution cuts.

      >> as Take-Two has announced it raked in the highest first-day sales in not only the GTA series, but the company's entire history too.

      Highest in gaming history, is it not?

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        September 18, 2013 9:09 PM

        Probably less than $350 million to T2 after all, and then production and marketing costs have to be subtracted, meaning they probably broke even, or came close, on first day. Superb accomplishment.

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