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Cast your mind back to just under 2 years ago, if you will. It is the weekend of November 8, 2002, and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City has been unleashed onto a salivating UK market. Sales records have been broken, with the critically acclaimed crime-fest exceeding 250,000 UK sales in it’s first weekend. Astonishing figures, by all accounts, and it has, impressively, held it’s record-breaking title……..until now.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the next instalment in the wildly popular series hit UK shelves last Friday, amid a flurry of pre-release ordering and anticipation, selling out of almost all game retailers within the first day, some in a matter hours. Many, including your intrepid reporter, were left clutching their quivering wallets in disappointment, as they were unable to obtain a copy. Now, sales figures for the game’s first 2 days have been revealed….
677,000. Yes, that’s not a slip of a keyboard, 677,000.. And that’s in the UK only. After only 2 days, it has almost tripled the opening sales of it’s predecessor, and former record holder. Not only that, but there are only ten Playstation 2 titles that have achieved sales above this figure in their lifetime, let alone in the opening weekend. These sales figures will only get more imposing as the week draws to a close, and the myriad unfortunate individuals who were left unable to procure a copy are finally able to obtain one, as stocks finally begin to trickle back in.
The big question that remains, of course, is whether or not the game can hold on to the Number 1 chart position when Christmas rolls around. Vice City managed it, but competition is much, much stiffer this time ’round, with such big hitters as Halo 2 and Half-Life 2 being released in the coming weeks. As the old clichè goes, only time will tell…
