Without a doubt, Microsoft’s decision to incorporate a backward compatible aspect to the Xbox One has not only been lauded by both fans and critics alike, but also the feature has gone on to become one of the strongest selling points for the system, and the program usually boosts sales of the older games that gets added to the list. As a matter of fact, following the confirmation of Grand Theft Auto 4‘s recent addition to the backward compatible library for Xbox One, the Rockstar Games-developed title has seen its sales spike dramatically, nearly peaking at 8000% on Amazon.

As seen on Amazon’s Movers and Shakers video game page – that is, the online retailer’s biggest gainers in sales rank over the past 24 hours – as of writing, sales for the Xbox 360 version of the title that contains Grand Theft Auto 4‘s base game and its two expansions in the Episodes of Liberty City package is currently up by 4536%. Remarkably, however, Rockstar Games’ 2008 open world crime release had hit even higher heights just before that, for as seen in the screenshot below shared courtesy of the fine folks at ThisGenGaming, sales for the standard edition of GTA 4 had exploded upwards by exactly 7696%.


Grand Theft Auto 4‘s successful sales resurgence should really come as no major surprise considering that a great many believe the open world title to be one of the top games of the last generation on PS3 and Xbox 360, causing current-gen fans who have yet to experience GTA 4 to want to take it out for a spin on the Xbox One. Not to mention, there’s even more reason for GTA 4 newbies to want to try the game with the two DLC packs The Ballad of Gay Tony, as well as The Lost and The Damned, being backward compatible as well. As it happens, a lot of fans have ranked those specific add-ons among the best video game DLC expansions of all time.

For those unaware, this is far from the first instance of Xbox One’s backward compatible program causing an increase in sales for a game from the previous console generation. Interestingly enough, the very same phenomenon occurred when Rockstar Games’ open world western title, Red Dead Redemption, made its way onto Microsoft’s current system via backward compatibility, with the game’s Xbox 360 version raking in sales with its physical copies, as well as with digital iterations on the Xbox Store, causing sales to jump nearly 6000%.

Posted: Feb 10, 2017 9:50 pm
Related Forum: Grand Theft Auto Forum

Source: https://gamerant.com/grand-theft-auto-4-sales-increase-8000-xbox-backward-compatible/