Hudson Square Research analyst Daniel Ernst, who previously forecast that Rockstar's GTA IV would become the top selling game of 2008 with 13 million copies sold, reiterated in a pre-launch "countdown" note that based on retailer surveys, "the game is very much on target for both a strong launch and a strong year."

Commenting on the reports of a $400 million first week for GTA IV, he said, "While we believe the figure is attainable (especially with the apparent high interest in the special edition copy), we believe the target is largely irrelevant."

Ernst continued, "We believe GTA's fan base addresses a wider demographic than Halo – and therefore expect the game to a have a longer shelf life, and expect the game to sell well over a longer portion of the year."

He also pointed out that while Halo 3 has reached 40 percent of the Xbox 360 installed base in the seven months since the game's launch, GTA IV naturally has a much wider pool of consumers to target since the title is available on PS3 as well. Ernst believes the game will reach 26 percent of the combined global installed base of the PS3 and Xbox 360 by the end of 2008.