GTA: Chinatown Wars on track to be ‘the highest rated title on the DS to date’
Gather round, everybody. An analyst is speaking
Proving once again that analysts are easily the most important and intelligent people in the world, Cowen Group analyst Doug Creutz has predicted that Chinatown Wars could sell 2 million copies in the US in its first year.
How did he work this out? Because the game’s score on Metacritic so far (many reviews are still to come, including Pocket Gamer’s) is 95, which puts it on track to be the highest rated DS game, and therefore a huge seller.
While we’d normally question the association of ratings and sales, we wouldn’t be surprised if Creutz’s prediction about Chinatown Wars came true, and to be fair he hedges his bets. "The strong critical rating will likely increase the game's chances of becoming a commercial hit."
Note that the both 'will likely' and 'the game's chances' effectively exonnerate Kreutz if his predictions don't come true. If somebody confronts him with sales figures of 1 million in a year's time he can simply say, "Indeed - how improbable."
His comments regarding the game's Metacritic rating are on firmer ground. "If the title's subsequent reviews are consistent with the initial critical response, 'Chinatown Wars' would be the highest rated title on the DS to date," he says.
Impeccable mathematics.
Gamasutra