Analyst predicts launch sales of 14m for GTA V

Grand Theft Auto V will sell more during its launch week than predecessor GTA IV sold in its first year, if analyst firm Sterne Agee is correct.

Arvind Bhatia predicts in a note to investors that at launch the game will sell a colossal 14m copies.

To do so it would have to fly in the face of current market trends, which are currently suffering a huge slump with most metrics heavily down year-on-year.

GTA IV, which let’s not forget is one of most successful games of all time, released in 2008 and sold 13m copies in its first year. In GTA V’s favour, of course, the user base of both Xbox 360 and PS3 is far higher now than it was in 2008.

If correct, these sales would represent around $700m in revenue for Rockstar, which recently predicted FY13 revenues of up to $1.85bn – more or less confirming a release for GTA V before the end of March 2013.