Analyst: GTA5 to make $1B in the first month of release

Grand Theft Auto IV’s sales weren’t as brisk as Rockstar Games had hoped, despite making a bundle. It seems like Grand Theft Auto V will be the major score the studio is looking for, as an industry analyst says the game will make $1B USD in its first month.

According to W Baird analyst Colin Sebastian, ”To-date, Take Two has shipped roughly 25 million units worldwide of GTA IV, and our checks suggest an uptick in catalog sales in the weeks ahead of tonight’s GTA V launch. Given the significantly higher installed base of relevant console platforms at launch, greater sales concentration among the top video game franchises, and unprecedented pentup demand, we expect GTA V to outpace GTA IV sales, and generate roughly $1 billion in retail sales during the first month.”

Sebastian added, ”We believe that consumer demand for GTA V is a useful yardstick to measure potential sales momentum for other key 2013 releases, most notably Call of Duty Ghosts (ATVI), Battlefield 4 (EA) and Assassin’s Creed IV (UbiSoft). Our retail checks suggest that Activision and EA are both aggressively courting GTA buyers to pre-order titles.”

Grand Theft Auto V comes out tomorrow on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Check out Strategy Informer’s 10/10 score review here.