GTA V Makes $800 Million In 24 Hours

An anonymous reader writes "The highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto V was released at midnight yesterday, and to no surprise has managed to break the record for highest sales in 24 hours. Distributors Take-Two Interactive have announced that the game has managed to achieve a staggering $800m (£490m) worth of sales within the first day, and is certainly going to break the forecasted $1 billion within the week. The record was previous held by Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops which made $500m within 24 hours in 2009. The game also holds the title for the quickest entertainment product to achieve $1 billion in sales as they hit the mark by day 15."

Comments

No PC yet

[phizi0n]

Those numbers would be even higher if they stopped shunning their roots by delaying PC releases and turning PC into a shitty port from consoles.

Re:No PC yet

[gl4ss]

you do understand that they're two totally different game types and liking both is not that uncommon?

have fun enjoying the story in europa universalis..

Re:No PC yet

[Sockatume]

You can have a refined, bug-free, well-performing PC release after the console versions are done, or you can have a crappy, poorly optimised version day-and-date with the console release, but you can't have both. Rockstar North favour the former. EA has you well served with the latter, if for some reason you prefer it.

Unless you're suggesting they should've just sat on the finished console versions for a few months while they finished the PC release, just to save you from feeling slighted.

Re:No PC yet

[phizi0n]

You can have a refined, bug-free, well-performing PC release after the console versions are done, or you can have a crappy, poorly optimised version day-and-date with the console release, but you can't have both. Rockstar North favour the former.

How do you explain GTA4? It was delayed a year and performed like shit on PC when it was released. GTA was originally a PC game and they have been treating PC as a second class citizen lately.

Re:No PC yet

[DrXym]

GTA plays far better on a PC with a mouse and keyboard than with a controller and I'm quite certain that lots of PC owners would appreciate the mindless entertainment of playing it. It's not like the PC is lacking its share of first person shooters, sandbox games etc. demonstrating there is a market. Saints Row 4 just came out on the PC for example.

A more likely reason is that PC games typically retail for less, suffer higher rates of piracy and must cope with a wider variety of hardware which must all be developed and tested for with higher resolutions and assets to boot. I assume that all these reasons play their part in consoles taking over from PCs in the last few years. Perhaps with digital download services like Steam and wannabes taking off that the PC market is more attractive than it was a few years back.

Re:No PC yet

[dingen]

GTA was originally a PC game and they have been treating PC as a second class citizen lately.

If by "lately" you mean "since 1999", then I suppose you're right. GTA hasn't been a PC game for a looooong time.

Re:No PC yet

[aiadot]

I disagree with that and for two reasons. First, while there is a chance the total sales of PC+PS3+360 may be bigger than PS3+360 alone, that doesn't always hold true, as sometimes the only thing you succeed in is in shifting the console sales to the PC(not even talking about piracy). Also actively supporting PCs increase the development and marketing and post sale supporting costs. Yes I know that console games are developed on PCs and most likely Rockstar has a working build of GTA5 for their PCs, but, as you said yourself, they are not optimized and most likely will require monster PCs to run well (see GTA4). Second, and IMO most important reason, marketing 101 dictates that you should milk the cashcow as much as possible. If you release such an overhyped mainstream game on a limited selection of platforms such as current gen consoles you WILL attract people from other platforms such as the PC and the people waiting for the next gen consoles regardless. Then you re-release the game on the next gen consoles with better graphics and performance, inducing a lot of people to rebuy your game. Then, finally, you release your game on the PC, inducing a final third wave of sales. You must remember that Rockstar just like the overwhelming majority of game companies, publishers or "indies", are not "for-gamer" but for-profit corporation. It's part of their mission to minimax their losses and profits above anything.

Re:No PC yet

[Tukz]

It did NOT perform "fine" if you had a quad-core.
It performed extremely bad on my i7, until the patch.

Re:No PC yet

[CastrTroy]

I Seriously wish the consoles would just get on with it, and encourage everybody to use a keyboard and mouse. Or at least something that gives a similar level of control, but can still be used on a couch, like a trackball, and a boatload of buttons/keys. Some custom controller with a trackball with about 4 buttons, plus about half a keyboard's worth of keys, could easily sit on your lap, and would allow much better control in most first person games than we currently get with gamepads. To this day, the only first person game I really enjoyed on console was Metroid Prime (GC), because it was mostly about exploring, and not fast reflexes. Still, I didn't ever finish it, because later in the game, it becomes pretty difficult, and the distance between savepoints is too far. The part where I quit was when I was 45 minutes from the previous checkpoint, following a walkthrough (because I was convinced I was going the wrong way), only to die because of an onslaught of enemies. Probably still about 20 minutes from the next save point. After a couple times doing that, I just stopped playing. I never understood why anybody enjoyed first person games on consoles. The love everyone seems to have for GoldenEye just blows my mind.

Re:No PC yet

[Anonymous Coward]

Which requires advanced modifications to the console including soldering. Little bit more difficult than copying a cracked .exe. You and richy freeway are both being disingenuous and you know it.

Re:No PC yet

[Sockatume]

Yes, because Europa Universalis is outselling Borderlands right now.

Re:No PC yet

[ddegirmenci]

Not that I disagree with you - the comparison is definitely invalid, but I found that I can actually enjoy the story in EU by having Wikipedia handy and reading about thousands of different events in the history of Europe and the world in general (and Crusader Kings is even better at this). This comes from a person who has repeatedly failed history classes in his past.

History has no plot holes that are easily realized to much disappointment, only some unknowns and Paradox is a master at imagining them at a very entertaining/awesome (as in awe-inspiring) way. Every now and then I find some event that wasn't represented very well in the games but well, who cares? The story is out there if I want to read and learn about it, and the game is here for me to play the way I want it.

Go watch Vikings or Pillars of the Earth and then play CK2 and it's DLC The Old Gods. It has the best. story. ever. Hell, you have no interest in real history? Watch Game of Thrones and play it in CK2. Or go ahead and play Oblivion & Skyrim alongside CK2 with this mod.

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation whatsoever with Paradox or the mods or that wiki. I'm just slightly(?) passionate about the games.

On a slightly related note, I've found EU4 to be incredibly shallow, almost arcade-ified compared to CK2 bar the trade system (haven't really mastered it yet, don't want to judge too early). I'm sad now :( but DLCs ahoy, I guess.

Re:No PC yet

[hairyfeet]

I've been a PC only gamer since the late 90s and to GTA V I have a big old...meh. After GTA IV and the whole "take me bowling" bit and comparing it to the batshit crazy fun of flying down the street on a broomstick or sucking up gangbangers in what looks like a giant Hello Kitty mobile (if the kitty went on a 3 day crack binge) and launching the gangbangers from the attached cannon several blocks into enemy vehicles?

I don't know about anybody else but when i play a sandbox i want total batshit balls to the wall FUN with a capital F made from fire and awesome and until another Just Cause comes out so I can grapple pursuing cars to the street and recreate the scene from T3 again I'll take the Saints Row series. The action is more extreme, the missions are often challenging without being frustrating, I just find the Saints games to be more FUN. From what I have seen so far it looks like GTA V has gone even further into that whole "dark, depressing, and gritty" feel and real life has enough of that already, thanks. What GTA needs is another Vice City so I can do 140+ MPH in a Hawaiian shirt and jump what feels like miles while Flock of Seagulls blasts on the stereo, now THAT was FUN.

Re:No PC yet

[hairyfeet]

I don't know, maybe I'm weird, but I love FPS games, play them constantly (just blasted through some Borderlands II last night, hence why I'm a dreary eyed zombie at work right now) but I just don't get what the big fucking whoop was about the Halo series. The guns were VERY "pew pew" and just didn't have any real power behind them, the vehicles all handled like ass, the writing was VERY predictable, the levels kinda boring and other than a few cute lines from the little fat minions (which got old REAL fast as they had such limited dialog) the whole thing just screamed "generic shooter" to me. I had both Halo I and II and frankly after a single play through I was "is that it? Really?" and promptly uninstalled them never to go back.

So I really don't get why there was such a big hoopla over those games when the whole thing to me felt about as special as a Mickey D's combo, bland,tasteless, and boring. Hell if anything I'd say they should be looked down upon for pushing that whole "two gun" thing which even in the context of that game made no damned sense! You telling me a guy in fricking power armor can't carry more than a single rifle and a pistol? Really? Hell give me a backpack to drop the ammo in and even my old behind can carry more weapons than that!

It deserves every sale it gets

[AbRASiON]

The game is incredible, if you're a fan of the GTA series, they've really addressed many issues with the game. The storyline is told better and more compelling than previous ones (that includes Gay Tony, which was quite good)

The graphics / environment / effects - god knows how they achieved this, I do not know. Yes some things like Uncharted look nicer but they are a very linear closed environment. For an open world game, it's utterly staggering. I'm playing on PS3 and the resolution seems higher than GTA4, there's more detail and there's more you can do AND the draw distance is further. The frame rate while not a flawless 30 all the time seems honestly better than GTAIV at most times.

The humour, satire, writing in general is utterly tip top. I am not cringing at lines or groaning at character decisions. As usual the commercials (billboard, radio, TV) are just fantastic, some of the random one liners amazing. The stuff they've added like the random mission encounters are awesome. I really can't complain about this at all in any way.
I'm about 35 hours into it (picked it up midnight Monday night) and about 2/3 of the way through it I'd say. It's just brilliant, it really is.
If you want to wait for the PC or oft wished for PS4 editions, go for it - but posting in reply here how inferior this is, pointless - the game is great, you can play it right now. If you want to complain that it's crap because "it doesn't do XYZ that Saints Row does" - good for you, hit up Saints Row!
This world blends together so many immersive things, it's just incredible. I love the shit out of this game.
$89 AUD? In hindsight I think I would've gladly paid $189 AUD. Just brilliant.

Re:It deserves every sale it gets

[Anonymous Coward]

Movie ticket: $10, 2 hours entertainment –$5 per hour.
Pub: $20, 4 hours entertainment – $5 per hour.
Typical AAA game: $40, 30 hours entertainment –$1.33 per hour.
GTA: $60, 100 hours entertaiment – $0.60 per hour.

I'd say GTA is pretty well priced already.

Re:It deserves every sale it gets

[DragonTHC]

Typical AAA game: $60, 8 hours entertainment - $7.50 per hour

There, FTFY

Re:It deserves every sale it gets

[captainpanic]

Movie ticket: $10, 2 hours entertainment –$5 per hour.
Pub: $20, 4 hours entertainment – $5 per hour.
Typical AAA game: $40, 30 hours entertainment –$1.33 per hour.
GTA: $60, 100 hours entertaiment – $0.60 per hour.

I'd say GTA is pretty well priced already.

That just says that the movies and beer in pubs are way too expensive.

Re:It deserves every sale it gets

[zippthorne]

The secondary market pushes the prices up. Each person in the chain doesn't net pay the whole $60.

Re:It deserves every sale it gets

[drinkypoo]

Typical AAA game: $60, 8 hours entertainment - $7.50 per hour
There, FTFY

You didn't fix anything. You broke a perfectly fine comment. We're not talking about any asshole AAA title. We're talking about fucking Grand Theft Auto here. I haven't bought an AAA title in years and I'm about to go out and get GTAV as soon as it's convenient. It is, in all likelihood, the last AAA title I ever buy because I won't buy first-sale-killing DRM'd Steam games, the Wii U seems dumb to me*, and Microsoft and Sony are both pure, concentrated evil and I think anyone giving them money at this point is a massive asshole.

* The Wii U seems dumb to me because of asymmetric controllers. And I won't pay the premium for a tablet controller that has limited usefulness in a single-player context. I'm a grownup and I have my own TV now.

Re:It deserves every sale it gets

[C0R1D4N]

When you account for inflation, game prices have been going down.. Hard to remember games were more expensive back when mommy and daddy were buying them for you.

Re:It deserves every sale it gets

[Sockatume]

I'd love to live in a world where AAA games were just 8 hours long. Completing even something like Alan Wake took me months. I'm always on the lookout for something like an MGS or Resident Evil game that I can thoroughly explore within a week or two with a minimum of padding.

Re:It deserves every sale it gets

[Nyder]

When you account for inflation, game prices have been going down.. Hard to remember games were more expensive back when mommy and daddy were buying them for you.

Mom & Dad never bought me games. They did buy a C64 though, cassette drive, no disk drive. And a modem. -- much better then buying me games.

till they got the phone bill...

Re:It deserves every sale it gets

[KozmoStevnNaut]

8 hours? I've played GTA5 for about 10 hours by now, and according to the game itself, I'm around 16% through with the story missions, never mind all the optional side missions and activities, gun smuggling, races, random events, treasure hunts and collectibles. Or the fact all of the heists can be played through multiple times with different approaches. Or the random dicking around that a GTA game always lends itself so well to, thanks to the wonderfully detailed world and enormous possibilities for outright mayhem they put in your hands.

Some AAA games are linear and more like semi-interactive movies than actual games, true. But that doesn't have to be a bad thing. A 100% slick, well-produced, well-told and immersive story has a value of its own, even if it is linear. Do you complain that your movies and books are too linear, as well?

Re:It deserves every sale it gets

[KozmoStevnNaut]

So I take it you've never played a GTA game.

That's fine, just don't jump to conclusions, ok?

Re:Sure

[mwvdlee]

And some people are both stupid and arrogant.

Need more numbers

[Anonymous Coward]

This is close to the highest grossing films (Avatar at 2.7 billion), but there is a difference in that we don't get to know how much a game cost and how much it sold unless the publisher wants us to.

All films have budget and box office numbers on their Wikipedia pages and IMDB and I think it's about time that happened for video games as well.

Is it really surprising ?

[Thanatiel]

Here at least, I've heard about the game in the "News" again and again. (Belgium)

Such or such shop exceptionnaly opened at 22:00 so people could queue and buy the game at 00:00 (here shops are usually closed at 18:30).
Such or such "expert" speaking about the influence on the children of such "an incredibely well done game, so realistic and with such an incredible level of freedom ...".

Is it so amazing that, with so much coverage, people not knowing anything about games would have an incentive, an urge, to put their hands on that "phenomenon" ?

I only remember that GTA IV was so boring, so repetitive and so identical to the previous ones that I put it aside for some other game.
Still, GTA IV was also highly rated and heavily advertised/covered by "journalists".

History repeats itself. Deal with it.

Re:Sure

[jcr]

Jealousy is a very ugly emotion, kid.

-jcr

The Onion's take on 'GTA V'

[SternisheFan]

'GTA V’ A Sophisticated Gaming Experience, Says Man Who Spent 3 Hours Running Over Homeless People With Fire Truck

http://www.theonion.com/articles/gta-v-a-sophisticated-gaming-experience-says-man-w,33893/

Re:The Onion's take on 'GTA V'

[mynamestolen]

I'd vote you up on this one but don't want to use my mod points. Sorry, but I want to make a comment or two about how broken slashdot has become. 1. I filter my page to give me high rating comments. Unfortunately I have to pick ALL because if I pick INTERESTING, or INFORMATIVE, or INSIGHTFUL I can't get FUNNY or any other category. So /. Why not combine at least three of these and allow me to filter on more than one category. 2. Too many mod points are given out if the system is going to continue to function the way it does. Almost everything is modded up. So /. Why stop at 5 for modding up. The highest should then be moved to the top of the page (I can click on stuff to give me a threaded view if I want) Anyway it's late and I'm going to bed.

Re:Sure

[Joce640k]

Most people are stupid and like shallow entertainment.

You don't have to be stupid to enjoy shallow entertainment.

Young men impersonate cops to buy GTA V, arrested

[argStyopa]

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/young-men-impersonate-cops-buy-gta-4-article-1.1459299

"Young Staten Island men impersonate police officers to skip line to buy Grand Theft Auto V
Kirolos Abdel Sayed, 19, Matthew Kirshen, 20, and Frank Santanastoso, 19, drove to the Staten Island Mall in what appeared to be an unmarked car complete with lights and sirens only to have their fun ended by real police officers."

Re:Sure

[somersault]

GTA is shallow and boring.

Compared to what? GTA is one of the most free-form and detailed virtual worlds there is. It's filled with beauty, technical awesomeness and humour. Are you just not a fan of games in general? What did you think of Red Dead Redemption?

Re:Incredible.

[dingen]

Your pretty dumb.

God I love this line. I can't stop laughing.

Re:Sure

[somersault]

I wish :p

But but but, the PIRACY!!!!

[Lumpy]

Wait, so this means they also lost $2.2Billion to piracy then? I keep forgetting their fake numbers they keep trotting out on how much the companies lose to piracy.

Re:Incredible.

[drinkypoo]

So how could Bud Lite surpass PBR in sales? Except by the extreme ignorance of mankind.

The same way anyone sells either of those beers, extreme ignorance of mankind. PBR is shit just like Budweiser is shit, it's just different shit. PBR is god's curse upon idiots for becoming hipsters.

Re:Sure

[RaceProUK]

Most people are stupid and like shallow entertainment.

Even emeritus professors occasionally laugh at fart jokes.

Re:Sure

[Talderas]

Once you go Row you never go Auto.

Re:not anywhere near CLOSE to $800 Million

[asylumx]

The title doesn't say anything about profits. What's your problem with it?

Re:Sure

[Lithdren]

Just because you dont enjoy something doesn't mean people who do are 'sheep'. You sound like a jerk, because you are.

60 dollars for a few hundred hours of entertainment isn't a bad deal. Its not entertainment if you dont like the game, which you clearly are dead set to not like. Good for you! So dont buy it.

Not buying something doesn't make you smart, it means you know what you like. That may sugest some wisdom but when your reason is "Because you're all SHEEP!" that more or less shows you're neither wise or smart. You just want to have something to hold over people to try to feel superior because you're not. When the best you can do is not doing something, it only shows how truly pitiful you are. I'm almost sorry for you.

Remember the target market

[rmdingler]

is primarily tweens and teens who worship Bieber, Swift, and company... not you /. eggheads. When you are young, there is something deliciously bad about running amok through a world with no rules.

Re:Remember the target market

[Anonymous Coward]

When you are young, there is something deliciously bad about running amok through a world with no rules.

I know, right?

Just ask Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris.

Seriously? Shut the fuck up. My wife actually knew Dylan and Eric and they were two nerdy kids who would have likely fit in well here. They got tortured by a bunch of douche bag jocks and 'bros' and whenever they tried to report it to school authorities, they did nothing but sweep it under the rug or punish the victims because they didn't want to hurt their football team. Stop believing everything you get spoon fed in the media, use your brain, and ask yourself "What would make two upper middle income, fairly privileged kids do something like this?"

Re:Young men impersonate cops to buy GTA V, arrest

[HnT]

I am sure the important question here is... how many stars did they get for that???

Actually you can have both

[Sycraft-fu]

Battlefield 3 would be an example. Launched the same day on all platforms and worked well on all of them.

It really isn't a big deal to simultaneously develop for multiple platforms and when you get down to it the PC is likely more similar to the Xbox 360 than the 360 is to the PS3 in terms of development tools and style.

The problem is Rockstar are console heads, for various reasons, and relegate the PC release to second class status.

You can also see it with shit like GTA 4. Not only did it come out way after the consoles, but it performed for crap. They can't argue "Oh well the PC just isn't powerful enough," as PCs dominate consoles in every respect at the moment. It was just poorly implemented and optimized.

Re:Sure

[interkin3tic]

Do tell, what entertainment do YOU like? Wait really? You like THAT? LOL! Well, fine if you like it, but that's (pick all that apply):
Overrated, Shallow, Stupid, technically flawed, Pretentious, communist, capitalist, feudalist, colonialist, neocolonialist, imperialist (I guess like storm troopers?), mysoginist, hipster, racist, elitist, too mainstream, vulgar, liberal, conservative, unamerican, something sheeple would do, libertarian, classist, immoral, gluttonous, lewd, vain, arrogant, environmentally unsound, unsustainable, disrespectful to native americans, disrespectful to african americans, disrespectful to moon men, culturally insensitive in some other way, fanboish, stupid, homosexual, (some insult based on heterosexuality), effete, too macho, lame, overrated again (because somehow other people liking it is somehow a really big insult), too mainstream, Too popular, not popular enough, Lame, Whiney, left, Right, transgendered, cis-gendered, no-gendered, triple-gendered, Supports DRM, Unrealistically does not support DRM, closed-source, M$, Fandroid, Apple fanboi, Linux insult, nerdy, Lamp,

Okay, I'm out of steam now. I think that should sufficiently cover whatever it is you do for entertainment and why it's bad and I'm better than you.

Statistical Noise?

[rmdingler]

Interesting. There is a subset of gamers who will kill prolifically enough for a media smorgasbord. It may well be the violence in the game translates to/fosters violence in real life. There is also a correlation between those who play FPS games and those who drink milk. There are too many milk drinkers in the world anyway.~

Re:Sure

[interkin3tic]

They "lack depth?" In what aspect? They're sandbox style games. GTA has some of the biggest maps with the most you can do in them. It's quite deep compared to other games in that reguard.

If you're talking about "it has a shallow plot" then you need to realize you aren't reading a book. You are playing a sandbox style game.

If you are complaining about shallow driving, shooting, and dart minigames, then you need to realize you aren't playing a driving simulator, a shooter, or a dart videogame. You are playing a sandbox style game.

Why not just say "overrated?" The hipsters do it for a reason: no one can argue with overrated, and it shows your disdain of the vulgar pleasures of the commonfolk. If you find one guy who says "I LUV GTA! IT'S THE BEST!' then you can accurately say that the game is overrated. If you make more specific picks about a popular game you hate simply because it's popular, you could be wrong.

Re:Sure

[Gilmoure]

I am not paying $60 to sit in some stuffy restaurant where they serve little bits of food on big plates. I'm also not paying $60 for some musical stage thing where all they do is sing show tunes. Definately not paying $60 to go deep sea fishing just so I can sit out in the hot sun, stink, and drink cheap beer.

I'll probably pay $60 to sit in the sun and watch a bunch of cowboys get bucked Oof of horses and bulls. And would pay $60 for a pile of comics at the comic book store. I'd even pay $60 for Elder ScrollsVI and waste a lot of hours there.

I any of y'all like or dislike stuff that is different from me, y'all are fools but if you do like the same things as me you're all posers who are trying to muscle in on my groove and now I hate the stuff I used to like.

Remember, nothing is any good if other people like it -and- nothing is any good if other people like stuff I don't.

So there!

Re:Sure

[drinkypoo]

I've gotta say that the minigames in GTA4 are anything but shallow. Even the pool game is way more complicated than it seems at first. The precise way you wiggle the stick as you hit the cue ball is completely relevant, not just the english point you set before striking. Bowling likewise. I can't imagine they'd have made the minigames in the new title any less complex. Similarly, the driving is quite detailed; it is however frustrating because of map errors and slow loading, for example when you hit a seam in the pavement that looks like nothing from any angle, even up close, or when you hit some orange cones which haven't loaded yet. If you can't display the damned things, how can you have the audacity to have me run into them? Now I have to memorize the locations of traffic cones so that when I'm really hauling ass I don't fly off my motorcycle and into the river? Thanks, thanks a lot, especially when one of those points is on a race route. Still an amazing game in spite of its flaws. I had to stop playing Fallout because it corrupted my autosave one too many times. That is just fucking unacceptable. No GTA title has ever done that to me, although I'm sure it's happened to someone somewhere somewhen.

Re:Sure

[drinkypoo]

IV felt like it took itself too seriously sometimes, but hopefully V is back to form.

I personally really appreciated that GTA4 was more like a contemporary drama. But I also like silly games. I believe it's time for a re-envisioning of Interstate '76... in the RAGE engine. And with Rockstar-quality writing.