Can GTA 4 Save PS3? How About Take-Two?

Colin Sebastian, an analyst with Lazard Capital Markets, said that although he expects the Xbox 360 to get the lion’s share of GTA IV software sales, Sony could capture as much as 40% of the market. "Historically, the franchise is more closely tied to Sony than to Microsoft, so there’s brand equity there if you will," he said.

"The GTA franchise was born and raised on PlayStation," a Sony spokesperson told Wired.com in an email. The company predicts that GTA IV’s launch this month will move sales of PlayStation 3 hardware: "There is strong brand association with consumers between PlayStation platforms and GTA and even though it is hard to predict the exact bump in PS3 hardware sales caused by GTA IV, it will certainly be a significant driver of hardware as consumers don’t forget that heritage."