
This summer's Miami Vice flick will have at least one licensed game to its credit, and it doesn't look like it will challenge Liberty City Stories as the preeminent beat 'em up-shooter on the PSP. In VU's Miami Vice, you can play as Sonny Crockett (Colin f***ing Farrell) or Rico Tubbs (Jamie "Ray" Foxx), but with the co-op mode, you and a buddy can partner up to take down the Colombian drug lords infesting the streets of Dade county. There's no mention if the film's cast will partake in the game's voice acting, but if Gong Li's Isabella character is waiting back on Sonny's boat, I'd like to test that mature rating.
Given the poor reception of the 2004 console and PC flop, this updated version is likely to sell about as many copies as a UMD of the film on which it's based. Anyone up for a Nash Bridges game?



















(Page 1) Reader Comments
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Uh, you do know that GTA LCS is by far, the best selling PSP game of all time, don't you? I wish people would get their facts straight before trying to be a smart alek.
Oh, and the reason why they are porting GTA LCS to the PS2 is because Take Two needs money. NOT because LCS didn't sell well on the PSP because believe me, it did.
Reply
Reply
PSP's only million sellers:
* Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (1.85 million) [281]
* Ridge Racer (1.04 million) [282]
just to throw it out DS's:
* Nintendogs (6 million) [217]
* Mario Kart DS (3.93 million) [218]
* Animal Crossing: Wild World (3.57 million) [219]
* Super Mario 64 DS (3.55 million) [220]
* Adult English Training (2.35 million) [221]
* Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day (2.18 million) [222]
* Brain Age 2 (2.13 million) [223]
* WarioWare: Touched! (1.88 million) [224]
* Big Brain Academy (1.20 million) [225]
* Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop (1.06 million) [226]
Reply
The only number I've been able to find is 158,000 copies in its first month. Through March, it was then the #1 selling title on PSP each month.
You can probably safely assume its numbers dropped a bit each month, and given the installed base of PSP's, I would think 700,000-800,000 copies is probably about right. (Take 2 has also never called it a "million seller" as they have with other titles.)
That's good, but it's not great for a GTA title. The last three GTA's for PS2 all sold greater than 7 million copies. It also apparently has not moved PSP's as the GTA franchise has done for the PS2.
Rockstar had been planning LCS since even before the PSP's launch, and I'm sure they expected more systems out there before LCS hit store and I'm sure they also expected it to drive further sales of the system. Neither of those things happened. So I do think sales of LCS on PSP can be considered a disappointment.
Reply
The DS one is here for North America
http://www.gaming-age.com/news/2006/1/3-1
And the PSP one is here you'll find there close to NPD numbers for North America ( Its under sales and competition on the 3rd paragrapgh)
http://www.answers.com/topic/playstation-portable
Also here are worldwide figures the info is under the bold letters of Market Share
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Portable#Sales_and_competition
Reply
http://the-magicbox.com/Chart-USPlatinum.shtml
GTA:Vice City has about 6.5 million units sold in North America but this is only about 20% of the supposed installed base of the PS2. (Depending on where you stand on the issue of PS2 defective unit numbers.) Think about it. The most popular PS2 game ever in the US has only reached about 20% of the potential audience. (Used game sales are difficult to factor but must account for at least a million additional purchases.) Such is the power of a massive installed base.
Selling a million on the PS2 is merely a success. Selling a million on the PSP, at least at this point in its existence, is a major achievement.
So, if GTA:LCS (part of my mind wanted to type LDS and imagine a game on the lawless streets of Salt Lake City) has sold over 1.85 million units on the PSP in the US and Europe, that is extremely good market penetration and consistent with the PS2 titles in the series. In fact, this is an attach rate matched by only a small number of titles throughout video game history. Many of the other titles with simlar percentages had the benefit of being bundled with the platform, like Sonic the Hedgehog, or being nearly the sole reason to own the platform, as with Mario 64 in the early months of the N64 when sales of that machine ran almost 1:1 with the game. In fact, on the list provided by this site, http://www.everythingandnothing.org.uk/vg/worldtotals.php , GTA:VC is only the second game that wasn't at least briefly part of a bundle package. (At least, I don't recall Super Mario Land being bundled on the original GameBoy as an alternative to Tetris.)
Two side notes. The exact installed base of the PSP vs. number of units shipped to retailers is unknown. So the precentages on game sales may be even higher. Also, some of the sales of GTA:LCS may be attributed to a certain feature desirable to those with no interest in the game itself.
Reply
Reply
Wikipedia cites a bunch of web sites as references at the bottom of that page, which themselves do not site references. So you're getting this metaverse of data that may or may not have come from anywhere reliable, with sites referencing other sites that themselves don't reference anybody. I can tell you for a fact (because I do have access to NPD data up through 2003) that some of Magic Box's numbers are way off. I think what a lot of these sites do is just cull numbers from wherever they can get them, and in some cases that probably even includes stuff like internet forum posts, as long as it *sounds* authoritative.
It seems pretty counterintuitive to me that GTA:LCS would have sold 1.85 million copies on a system with an installed base of 4.5 million units when first-month sales totaled 158,000 in October. Typically, games don't sell 158,000 units in their first month and then go on to *average* more than 300,000 units in subsequent months, including the lean months of February and March.
Maybe it's true - stranger things have happened - but I don't believe it just because wikipedia references a couple sites that themselves don't list references. You've gotta give me more than that.
Reply
Reply
the 1.85 million is worldwide sales, not just for the US. (Japan sales are actually about nil.) The chart has GTA:LCS sales divided almost evenly between the US and UK/Europe markets. 1.85 million software between the installed bases of both markets is very good but not inconsistent with GTA sales on the PS2.
Those times in the past when Magic Box's number could be compared with commercial research sources the results have usually matched. Magic Box usually lags behind by several months to a year, so their numbers for GTA sales are on the low side.
Reply
The numbers listed are several months out of date, as indicated by the pages themselves. Unless sales have come to a grinding halt the numbers have to be adjusted upward somewhat to compensate for the passage of time.
Reply
Now, as far as DS sales to PSP sales...who cares. Play the portable that has games worth playing to suit your taste. I'm not port-happy so it's DS for me.
Reply
I don't think most of you know the meaning of portable. Sony was probably trying to make their Playstation games PORTABLE so you don't need to bring you TV and PS2 around with you. And if you keep asking why buy a PSP when you have a PS2, well why did you buy a Gameboy when you had a NES or SNES at home? DUhh a Gameboy is portable!
But anyways, I think this game will be just okay.
Reply
Reply
The co-op mode in the PSP is innovative and makes use of its wi-fi functionality. The Miami Vice would be a decent Game. Even if it does not beat Liberty City in the addiction department.
Reply
I don't pretend to know the back story to the movie remake of what still stands up as a great 80s tv show (Granada Men & Motors has been repeating it, and I'm consistently floored by how good it is), but I suspect that - ironically - it was the GTA: VC's breakout success was a key factor in it getting greenlighted.
On a related point (and I'm thinking Silent Hill particularly here), how is it that - as games themselves become more cinematic and more emotionally involving - the movie remakes become increasingly less engaging? Tomb Raider. Silent Hill. Doom. The list is growing ever longer. What exactly is Hollywood thinking? Could it simply be that the powers-that-be just look at game sales and assume that they have a guaranteed 16-34 male audience that will lap up whatever they're given?
My two cents.
Reply