Do mature-themed video games have any place on the Nintendo DS? Not to say whether or not they should be allowed, obviously, but whether or not it makes any sense for a publisher to release a game for the system, given its reputation as a “kiddie” platform. Case in point: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, which sold only 82,000 copies in March. (It was released on March 18, so it was only available for 12 days Then again, how many copies did GTA IV sell last April, even though it came out on the 29th?) Should DS publishers stick to shovelware kiddie nonsense?
Not according to Nintendo, which has come out in defense of Chinatown Wars specifically and the DS generally. Telling the MTV guys the other day, Nintendo said that the game was “in line with AAA titles” on the system, sales-wise. Call of Duty 4, after all, eventually sold more than 500,000 copies. So there absolutely is a market for more mature games.
But then, consider that there’s more than 30 million DS’s in the U.S.
What was it, then? It’s not like the critics (yes, I realize linking to Metacritic is hypocritical; I don’t care.) didn’t like it or anything. I honestly have no idea what happened.
Photo: Flickr