Apple Shows Sony, Nintendo How To Sell Grand Theft Auto
Out today on the iPhone, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars proves that Nintendo and Sony will have a hard time holding on to their properties.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is already getting high reviews and running up the Apple best-seller list. It was also released twice on other portable consoles, on the Nintendo DS in March 2009 and the Sony PSP in October 2009. It flopped on both systems.
The big differences here are the price and the audience. Sold for $30 to $40 on the console systems, critics wondered if Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars would break the iPhone/iPod Touch $9.99 game "price barrier". It didn't, and now users are excited to be getting a high priced iPhone game -- one still one-third the price of its previous installments.
Secondly, neither the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP have significant mature audiences. As with the Wii, Nintendo has cultivated a squeaky-clean, family-friendly image -- and seems shocked when truly mature games don't sell. After Chinatown Wars poor sales, Nintendo executive vice president of sales and marketing Cammie Dunway recently said "It's frustrating, quite frankly... part of what's needed is you have to continue to put marketing support behind these titles." With Rockstar Games known for its savvy marketing, Nintendo's own successful pink puff marketing might have made Chinatown Wars' impact a net zero.
Chinatown Wars would have been great on the hardcore-focused Sony PSP circa 2005. By the time it was released last year, however, the PSP audience was already rapidly shrinking -- even bringing in Sony's own top home console title, God Of War, didn't boost support much. Last year's lame, overpriced PSPGo mobile further hurt Sony -- making it compete with its previous PSP system and, as a high-priced digital download only device, ran it smack dab into the iPhone/iPod Touch audience.
The beauty is that Rockstar Games kept development costs low by changing little to nothing for the iPhone version. The Nintendo DS already uses a touchscreen, while the Sony PSP has graphic capabilities comparable to the iPhone.
With Rockstar Games having its biggest series breakout on a questionable console, other companies now have the green light to bum rush the iPhone. The games are just beginning.
Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/kudo88/ / CC BY-ND 2.0