GTA IV: Xbox vs PlayStation
Beware the half-truths that Microsoft wants you to believe
Grand Theft Auto IV: the biggest game of all time?
There's been a lot of focus in the last week on Grand Theft Auto IV and which platform it best runs on.
The majority of people who've played both versions are saying that it runs marginally better on the PS3, but the findings are inconclusive at best: both are equally good in our eyes.
What's interesting to me at the moment is how Microsoft is attempting to use GTA as a PR exercise to boast about the Xbox 360 console and its success.
We received an unbelievable and outrageous press release today from Microsoft UK saying:
"Gamers have voted with their wallets, and the results are in. The Xbox 360 version of 'Grand Theft Auto IV' has sold more than 100,000 copies, or 20 per cent more than the PlayStation 3 version in the UK since the game's release last Tuesday 29 April."
Exaggeration and hyperbole
The release then sees Microsoft rambling on and on, mostly just patting itself on the back about selling more copies and going on about how the Xbox 360 is the premium platform for enjoying GTA. Blah, blah, blah.
Please excuse me briefly while I pause to be sick.
Here's the point: there are more Xbox 360 consoles out there (it launched over a year earlier) so straight numbers are a terrible way of looking at the market. The Xbox 360 version of GTA IV sold 20 per cent more copies than the PS3 version. And that's despite the fact that there are almost twice as many Xbox 360 consoles in the wild in the UK, compared to PS3s.
Crunch the numbers
So, relatively speaking, for Microsoft to brag about doing better than Sony, it would need to sell almost twice as many copies of the game, too. But it didn't. And as such, the numbers say that per-console, the PS3 version has actually done a bit better.
"Data released by ELSPA/Chart-Track shows Xbox 360 Week One sales at 514,000 copies sold in the UK. PlayStation 3 version of the game sold only 413,000 copies, clearly demonstrating that gamers prefer the Xbox 360 version," says the Microsoft press release progaganda exercise.
What a load of complete rubbish, Microsoft!
Let's do the maths. 413,000 PS3 copies of GTA IV divided by the 1.2m PS3 consoles sold in the UK, equates to about 0.3 copies sold per console. So basically one in three UK PS3 owners have bought GTA IV in the last seven days.
Compare that to the 514,000 Xbox 360 copies sold in the UK, divided by the 2.2m consoles in circulation. It amounts to 0.23 copies per console. So about one in four Xbox 360 owners bought the game. Comparatively LESS than the PS3 version.
It's all a load of smoke and mirrors nonsense. Everyone is up to it - it's not just Microsoft.
This is an absolutely textbook example of a big company spouting a load of dingo's kidneys in order to promote itself.
By James Rivington
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