Sony has attributed Grand Theft Auto IV’s sales advantage on the Xbox 360 at Gamestop due to the fact the console has a larger installed base than the PlayStation 3.
The company was responding to news from the US retailer giant that the critically acclaimed sandbox title sold through 64 per cent of its first week allocation on the Microsoft platform.
However, speaking to Newsweek, Senior Vice President of Marketing Peter Dille said that the numbers are not surprising considering the overall installed base of each console in North America.
“GameStop probably does a little bit better with the early adopter crowd,” he said. “There’s a larger installed base right now on Xbox 360 than on PS3. So it’s not surprising that there’s going to be more selling on Xbox 360 than PS3. Having said that, we’re really excited about the ratio. If I had an installed base advantage of 3-1, I wouldn’t be crowing too much about a 60-40 sales advantage.”
“We think it’s not as high as what GameStop’s telling you, if you look at [the full picture on] the national level. They’re outselling us, but not by that same margin, and it’s because of their installed base lead.”
Dille went on to state that PlayStation 3 consumers are “overindexing” on GTA IV, adding, “With an installed base lead that’s close to 3-1, if you’re bragging about a 60-40 software split, it’s clear evidence that the PlayStation 3 consumer is overindexing on GTA IV, and the PlayStation brand loyalty that we’ve been talking about is bearing itself out in the marketplace as we speak.