GTA: Chinatown Wars sales "in line" with expectations
Nintendo says the mature handheld title is keeping pace with previous AAA title releases
Nintendo has defended US sales figures for Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, saying it is "in line" with other AAA DS titles.
Steve Singer, vice president of licensing for Nintendo of America, explained that Rockstar's sale of 89,000 units for March was standard for a successful third-party title on the platform.
Singer pointed out that Call of Duty 4's DS outing saw sales of 36,000 units in its first month, which later grew to more than 500,000. However, this is still significantly short of earlier analyst estimates that GTA: Chinatown Wars would sell 2 million units within the year.
"Chinatown Wars' is performing in line with AAA titles that have come to our platform like Spore or Lego Star Wars," Singer told MTV. "Those games went on to have very different life-to-date sales numbers."
Sales of GTA: Chinatown Wars were described as a "disappointment" by investment firm Cowan and Company, which now estimates that only 500,000 units will be sold by the end of the year.