Mature rated games not for DS
GTA: Chinatown Wars’s review scores not reflected in sales
Before it even made it to the shop shelves, GTA: Chinatown Wars became the highest scoring DS game of all time. But, as industry analyst Jesse Divnich points out, those review scores don’t necessarily translate directly into sales.
Divnich has warned publishers that mature themed DS games (Chinatown Wars being the UK’s first 18 rated DS title) could be a marketing red herring.
“It appears the industry may have been over-zealous with initial expectations on how GTA: Chinatown Wars would perform based upon the news it had received one of the highest quality scores for a Nintendo DS title,” he explains.
“It is important to note that there have been many other titles that achieved a quality score above 90 on the Nintendo DS and have failed to sell more than 300,000 units within three months in North America - irrespective of ESRB rating.”
The PSP’s Vice City Stories racked up around double the number of launch week sales that GTA: Chinatown Wars achieved, which is currently sat in the games charts at a mildly disappointing 19, dropping from number 10 last week.
Despite regularly attempting to shake off its child-friendly image, Nintendo has always been thought of as a family company, which could prove to be a sticking point for mature themed games such as GTA: Chinatown Wars.
US sales data is expected to appear shortly, which will shed more light on the game’s commercial achievement in comparison to its critical success.
