Virtual crime, it seems, pays well
Latest Grand Theft game poised to set records with debut
This summer's movie blockbusters will feature familiar heroes like Indiana Jones and Batman. But don't be surprised if a brutal bad guy named Niko Bellic outperforms them all.
Bellic is the antihero of Grand Theft Auto IV, the latest chapter of the massively popular and controversial video game series. And there's a good chance that as the $60 game hits store shelves today, it could generate over $300 million in sales in its first 24 hours - a far better one-day take than any movie in history.
Expect double the controversy, too: The GTA series has sparked international outrage over its cheerful depictions of drug dealing, prostitution, and murder. Developer Rockstar Games has already been forced by the government of Australia to remove some explicit scenes prior to the game's release Down Under.
The GTA games are famous for their engag ing dialogue and lavishly detailed urban landscapes. And while most adventure games force the player down a tightly scripted series of incidents, GTA players can break away from the main storyline and strike out on their own.
"You can go off and interact with anyone and anything in the universe," said Pidgeon. "You don't have to follow a story path." For instance, a player can choose to drive an ambulance and rescue innocent citizens to earn rewards. Or he can randomly assault people and steal their cars.
Philip Tan, executive director of the GAMBIT Game Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said that millions who've grown accustomed to computers and the Internet are hungry for complex, interactive amusements that only a computer game can provide. "Being able to create an artificial world . . . that's extremely compelling to an audience that's comfortable with that technology," said Tan. "I think it's just the most compelling medium we currently have."
While other interactive games immerse players in futuristic or medieval fantasy worlds, the GTA games serve up grim slices of present-day reality. GTA IV takes place in Liberty City, a thinly disguised version of New York. Bellic, a newly arrived immigrant from Eastern Europe, discovers that the streets aren't paved with gold; to pay the bills, he takes up a life of crime.
Rockstar has a long tradition of outraging authority. Another of its games, Manhunt 2, has been banned in Britain, Germany, Italy, and Ireland for extreme violence. A previous GTA title, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, was pulled from store shelves worldwide after it was revealed that the game contained an explicit sex scene.
The incident stoked efforts to ban retailers from selling video games with adult content to people under age 17. However, courts in several states, including California and Oklahoma, have struck down such laws, finding them in violation of the First Amendment. That fact hasn't deterred Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, who backs the passage of a similar law in Massachusetts. "Parents basically need help keeping this stuff from their kids," said Larry Mayes, Boston's chief of human services.
But Pidgeon said that the GTA games have a lot more going for them than relentless brutality. "Not only does it have that violence that hard-core gamers do like, but it's also a very good game," he said.
Earlier GTA titles have sold 30 million copies in the United States alone, according to the market research firm NPD Group. But most of these games were designed to run on
Michael Pachter, gaming industry analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles, said this will limit the potential sales of the new game: There are well over 100 million PS2 consoles in use worldwide, but only 18 million Xbox 360s and 11 million PS3s.
But Pachter said the new game will likely lead to a surge in PS3 sales as loyal GTA players upgrade. "This is the first game that a PS2 owner is going to see that really makes them want to upgrade to a PS3," Pachter said. He predicted that GTA IV will sell 18 million copies over the next two years. At the current list price, that would generate sales of just over $1 billion.
Even though the game could also boost sales of the Xbox 360, Sony officials hope GTA IV will help the PS3 catch up with the Microsoft machine. "Grand Theft Auto is a great franchise, and it's one that grew up and was built on the PlayStation 2," said Peter Dille, senior vice president for PlayStation marketing. "We're pretty confident that a lot of these guys will maintain their PlayStation loyalty."
The debut of GTA IV also comes at a critical time for
Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.
