I just heard my second NPR story about Grand Theft Auto 4 this morning. Gawker is of course all about it lately, both editorially and in the ad space, although I'm sure that's just a coincidence, kids. The New York Times has a big feature, as does Radar; generally, it's all over.
But!
Now I don't dispute that this game looks awesome. Although honestly I have played 4 or 5 of these games, and I invariably get bored about 3/4 of the way through. I only finish them because I've come to loathe the game so intensely by the point at which I become bored that to let it triumph over me is unbearable. That aside, all I can really quibble with about the remarkable depth and breadth of this coverage (a raise to Rockstar's publicist, please!) is that figure in the headline, which I've heard in both NPR stories, seems somewhat suspect. I am sure there are plenty of figures they have available about past sales and pre-orders, but any broker will be happy to tell you that past results do not guarantee future performance. It's not even that I think this figure is wrong, even, I just cannot imagine how you arrive at a number like that. I'm sure the producers of Leatherheads expected a $40 million opening weekend, but even they held off from sending that number around. But I'm sure NPR wouldn't just pull a number from a press release and recite it as gospel, right? I'm sure they had their own video game sales analysts go over that. Right?
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