PS: The original comment is complete bull.

GTA IV sreies rule… but the next GTA, or sequal to IV needs planes!!

GTA4 actually sold more in its first day than san andreas
wanna know how I know that about the game?
because I did some research,which only took 5 seconds looking on the wikipedia
you really need to start getting your facts right before you start blabbering text all over the internet because your making yourself look,just a little bit retarded

Why do you thik Sony hasn’t pulled the PS2. Why do you think developers still write for it?

Gen 7 was destined to die before it even began. The Western World (especially America) sealed the generations fate for it.

Quick history lesson – during the video game crass of the early 80′s, the world was also stuck in recession. I am old enough to remember it and can promise you all that what happened then is nothing compared to what is coming.

This article is like comparing a puppy to a full grown dog and complaining that the puppy is too small and hasn’t grown to near the size of the full grown dog.

Granted, the game could still never sell another copy and the author could be correct about sales, but saying gaming is dead based on a SINGLE title still in its INFANCY is bad journalism and just goes to show how people can make up stories when they don’t have anything better to contribute.

PS3 and Xbox 360 console sales (combined even) will never come close to that of the PS2 total sales. The main reason is that the two consoles cater to a very small segment of the gaming market – the hardcore market. They can branch out and try to target a wider market (by introducing their rumored imitation wii-motes and what not) but Nintendo has already got them in their grasp. Yes, price is a factor but it’s not everything. There is a 360 SKU in the U.S. which sells only about $30 more than the Wii yet the Wii is still greatly outselling it. In Australia, the 360 is cheaper than the Wii, but guess which one is selling much better?

There is no way that as many developers today can continue to make many big budget games when the market is stagnant or decreasing. That equates to smaller profit margins and bigger financial risks. There will always be big budget games as long as their gamers who make the multi-million sellers, but I do expect to see less and less of them being made in the future from more developers. I have read some companies are already abandoning developing big budget games. Namely Atari and Hudson.

To digress, I think this will be the last generation of high end consoles. Don’t expect to see the PS4 or Xbox 720 (or whatever it will be named) to be much more powerful than its predecessors when they have lost billions of dollars for selling it for much less than it cost to produce. That business model is unlikely to be adopted next round.

Halo 3 sold millions, as did Bioshock, COD4, Age of Conan, Mario & Sonic / Olympic Games, Super Mario Galaxy, Cooking Mama, Wii Fit. For any of these games you could have tried to spin the same evidence-free story: “Sure, that game did well, but it’s sales are going to drop off because… because I say so, and anyway those sales don’t count because of some arbitrary short-term factor that I don’t understand but will cling to to support my worldview anyway.”

You’ve defined “next-gen gaming” to mean high-profile boxed products on the 360 and PS3 only (except Rock Band doesn’t count, for some reason?), and even then your numbers don’t work.

How long have you been beating this drum now? Five years? How much longer is it going to take for you to realise that there is still a huge market for games you don’t appreciate (because when you get down to it that’s all that the games that you rail against have in common, regardless of the pseudo-economic arguments you dress these attacks up in), and it isn’t going away?

I look forward to coming back to it after the game has been on sale over Christmas, and the PC version is out, and rubbing your nose in it for the billionth time.

I do agree that we’re unlikely to see another generation of consoles in the PS3/360 mold – but the high-spec games that you bawl and throw your toys out of the pram over will continue to be made, for the PC, as hardware prices spiral ever downward.

And they will continue to sell in the millions. Get over it.

I’m not gonna repeat the data points and counter arguments which basically embarassed Au once again. Go back to all his articles about the 360 failing, halo 3 failing etc etc etc.

But it’s probably fun having a complete muppet on staff.

But yeah, I agree with a the overall point and the comments about these systems having hit saturation at their current price points. If you’ve got GTA4, Halo 3, and a bunch of other great games on the shelf but can only sell slightly under 200K it’s time to evaluate things.

But then there is the red ring of death – who knows how much this has cost developers in terms potential customers being scared away, or a potential price cut being squandered on a protracted three year, $1 billion recall? Third parties are not in a great position right now. They system that generates healthy software sales for a diverse set of games is #3 in two markets and now selling third in it’s top market, PS3 is just too expensive still, and people that own the Wii are ignoring good third party games, even if it’s something like Boom Blox that was designed around the system.

I agree with the larger point though. We’re seeing the business side of the industry come crashing down on the entertainment side. I don’t see Sony or Microsoft doing much to improve their tech in the next cycle. Most people simply are not willing to pay more for hardware even if it does more. This has always been the case for handhelds, and it’s even becoming the case for PC gaming which is why so many shooters are considered 360 games first, PC games second. PC sales charts are dominated by technologically dumbed down games that will run on virtually anything.

I don’t see where GTA will have a problem. If you can sell 9 million copies on hardware that costs $350/$400, you can sell even more for the next installment as long as Microsoft isn’t completely insane and has prompted another round of hardware price cuts next gen. People need to keep in mind that GTA3 debuted on a system that was $299, cut to $199 six months after the game came out, was released on the PC when people actually played real games on the PC, and the Xbox was $179 when the GTA Double Pack was released. If the NEXT GTA sells less you could say there is a cause for concern. Bringing up San Andreas is pointless because GTA IV isn’t a PS2/Xbox/PC game.