Microsoft Says 360 GTA4 Outselling PS3 2-to-1 in U.S

For months leading up to its release, when gamers and industry analysts could manage to get their minds off of simply wanting to play it, the question on the minds of many was: Who would benefit more with the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, Sony or Microsoft? Just a few days after its release, both platform holders have already begun to claim the results in their favor -- or at least to spin the perception that the results are in their favor.

According to Next-Gen.biz, Microsoft is claiming that since GTA4's release on Tuesday, the Xbox 360 version has been outselling the PlayStation 3 version in the U.S. by a two-to-one margin. "What we've heard anecdotally from our retail partners is that the Xbox 360 version of the game is outselling the PS3 version by a margin of two-to-one," said Aaron Greenberg, director of product management for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live. "That mirrors what we saw with pre-orders, but it continues to hold true at retail, at least for the first couple of days. It's a great sign."

The key word in that quote, though, is "anecdotally". Neither Microsoft nor Sony (nor Rockstar, for that matter) have released official sales numbers yet, but that didn't stop Sony Computer Entertainment America from denying Microsoft's claims. In a response to Next-Gen, a Sony representative stated the two-to-one ratio "doesn't line up" with what Sony has heard from their retail partners, although the rep declined to elaborate on just what exactly their partners were telling them until official sales numbers are available.

So either Sony's and Microsoft's respective retail partners aren't sharing information with each other, or someone's dishing some misinformation. Both platform holders are also claiming boosts in their respective console's sales -- but again, neither has released hard numbers to back it up. When asked if the April NPD numbers would confirm a spike in 360 hardware sales, Greenberg responded that "I think we'll have solid performance in April, but I think you might actually see a bigger impact in May."

Which means conclusive hardware results, according to Greenberg, won't be known until the May NPD numbers are released in June. But even then, the question of who really benefited most from the release of GTAIV might still be inconclusive, as this is only concerning North American sales. The full answer will only be revealed once worldwide software sales figures come in, as well as hardware numbers -- and it'll also depend on how success is measured (selling more copies of the game, or selling more hardware? Or both?).

So basically, expect both Microsoft and Sony to eventually claim victory one way or another, no matter what the numbers say.

Source: www.1up.com