Debra McGrath of EB Games Australia, the largest games retailer in the country, has recently announced that the PS3 version of Grand Theft Auto 4 is just ahead of the Xbox 360 version in terms of pre-sales.

Following that statement the National Marketing Manager of Gametraders, Chad Polley went on to say “According to the figures we have at the moment, we’re [pre-]selling two PS3 versions for every one 360 unit.”

If this trend is replicated around the globe, surely Microsoft isn’t going to be happy about the 50 million dollar DLC deal with Take-Two as an incentive for people to choose the Xbox version. However, Microsoft could have the last laugh if they manage to sell significant quantities of downloadable content at a later date.

The latest reports from the UK suggest the trend doesn’t seem to be confined to just Australia. Speaking to MCV.UK, Asda’s Duncan Cross said,

Both titles have generated great interest on the Asda website, with strong pre-orders, and the PS3 version is selling three times that of 360, which is surprising and not in line with what we’d expect.

Then again, online retailers tell a different story. If you take a look at the bestsellers on Amazon.co.uk GTAIV on Xbox 360 is first and the PS3 version is second.

The game is expected to spur sales of both consoles accross the globe, but Patcher tells Reuters that the game could result in 2 million more PS3 sales in comparison to only 1 million Xbox 360s. “I think PS3 ‘wins’ this battle,” Pachter said.

However, this needn’t be reflective of game sales, mainly due to the Xbox 360’s already larger install base. Jesse Divinch predicts that US sales of the game will be 2:1 in favour of the Xbox 360:

If there is a correlation between the GamerMetrics data and the U.S. NPD data (and there somewhat is), I estimate that we are going to see a GTA IV sales ratio of anywhere between 2.2 to 2.7 in favor of the Xbox 360 – which is also in the same ballpark of the current Xbox 360 to PS3 lifetime-to-date hardware sales ratio of 2.4.

Only time will tell.

Source: Gamespot, MCV.UK, Reuters and Gamasutra

Tags: australia, GTA4, PS3, Xbox 360

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2 Comments » shamon on April 25, 2008 7:01 am ha ha ps3 wins i cant wait i should have my game this afternoon when i come back from Harold and kumer . KTR on April 25, 2008 11:30 am I have also read that pre-orders in the UK favor the PS3 3:1. RSS feed for comments on this post. Comment Now Note: Commenting on Ripten does not currently require registration, however to be eligible for contests on the site, you must be a registered user. Name (required) Mail (will not be published) (required) Website Commenting Rules: No hate speech allowed. If you must argue, please debate intelligently. Comments containing selected keywords or outbound links will be put into moderation to help prevent spam. Ripten reserves the right to delete comments and ban anyone who doesn't follow the rules. Thanks. Notify me of followup comments Tired of the Goomba? Upload your own custom comment avatar.