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Since the launch of the Nintendo Wii videogame console inNovember of 2006, the Japanese videogame company had not missed a beat.That is, until the release of Grand Theft Auto IV this week.
Analysts are predicting that Take-Two Interactive Software (nasdaq: TTWO - news - people ) will make $400 million this week on sales of 6 million copies of the crime-drenched videogame. Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people )is eager to exploit the game, paying $50 million in advance royaltiesfor the right to release exclusive content online. The title alsopromises to revive interest in the Playstation 3 gaming console, withgame critics saying the game looks sharper on Sony's (nyse: SNE - news - people ) console. But the game is a bust for Nintendo (other-otc: NTDOY.PK - news - people ): not a single copy of the game will be played on the Nintendo Wii.
There's more to come: "It's one of a series of good games that willeach convince consumers that there is a lot of good content on theother two boxes," Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter says.
How many gaming consoles do you need? Could Grand Theft Auto IV put a chink in the Wii's armor? Or will the Nintendo Wii continue to stomp the Playstation 3 and XBox 360?
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arly on, some industry analysts predicted trouble for Nintendo (other-otc: NTDOY.PK - news - people ):The Wii had a relatively pokey processor, it lacked a hard drive, itscontrols were unusual. Two years ago, developer Chris Hecker took thosewhispers into the open, when he uncorked a rant at the Game DevelopersConference in San Francisco, claiming the Wii was nothing more than apair of Gamecubes held together with duct tape. (At least he picked theright venue: The session was called "Burning Mad: Game DevelopersRant".) Hecker has since apologized, and his personal Web site says ofthe matter "please don't ask me about it, thanks."
Yet even though the Wii seemed to lack the muscle that so many othergaming platforms hoped to build up, plenty of consumers fell in lovewith the console. In a relatively short time, the Wii elevated Nintendofrom worst to first in the game console market. Wii sales in the UnitedStates now outstrip the combination of Sony's (nyse: SNE - news - people ) Playstation 3 and Microsoft's (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) XBox 360. Since releasing the Wii, Nintendo shares have surged more than 165%.
Even game developers who once spurned the Wii have reversed courseand are now pumping out Wii titles. Microsoft is reportedly evendeveloping a motion-sensitive knockoff of the Wii's controller. That,no doubt, will make it easier to port some of the flurry of games builtfor the Wii to the XBox.
The problem is, it could get tougher and tougher to go the other way.It's hard to imagine how the sprawling world of Grand Theft AutoIV--which already taxes the multicore processors powering the XBox andPlaystation--could be recreated on the Wii. Bloggers have caught on,some complaining about the plethora of bad games for the platform.
The advantages of the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 go beyond justrich, immersive games. "If [gamers] care more about high-definition, orthey care about online, or they care about more graphically richimmersive games, they're going to consider a 360 or Playstation 3,"Pachter asserts.
GTA IV, which sold a record-breaking 926,000 copiesover its first five days of release, has - unsurprisingly - capturedthe top of the UK sales charts.
GTA IV outsold Wii Fit, lastweek's number one title, by a margin of over 9 to 1. Sales ofNintendo's title were down 58 per cent, which can be partiallyattributable to low stock.
After GTA IV, however, the remaining top five best-selling titles were Nintendo exclusives.
Justover 61 per cent of the value of all software sold this past week wasfor GTA IV - which Chart-Track said itself is bigger than the totalsoftware market figure of every other week so far in 2008 apart fromweek one.
The only other new release to reach the AllFormats Top 40 chart this past week was Sega's Iron Man: The OfficialVideogame, which entered at number eleven.
The Top Ten best-selling games in the UK for the week ended May 3 were as follows:
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