Take-Two CEO Ben Feder has predicted that Grand Theft Auto IV, which was released today, will beat the sales forecasts of leading industry analysts.
Mike Hickey of Janco Partners said in early April that he expects Take-Two to ship 5.8 million units of the game in its first week of release, with a sell-through of roughly four million over the same period. Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan adjusted his March estimate of six million units shipped in an AP article yesterday, saying, “Nine million. That’s the number. That’s about a 35 percent attach rate. By year’s end, it’ll be somewhere between 11 and 13 million because more consoles will be sold before the holidays.”
But Feder is setting his sights even higher, telling Reuters, “Our expectations are very high, higher than analysts give the game credit for. All the analysts had a (sales) number, give or take, and I think we will be on the upside of that rather than the downside.”
Grand Theft Auto IV is expected to earn roughly $400 million in sales in its first week of release, according to a Next Generation report, a figure that would crush the release week sales record currently held by Halo 3. Anita Frazier of NPD Group said she expected “monster sales” in April to break numerous records, adding, “We release our April sales data on May 15, and I get goosebumps thinking of the numbers we’ll see on that day.”
