"We only sold HOW MANY?!" All the time, critically acclaimed games are being released into the public domain and subsequently being overlooked by the majority of people who play video games. It's been that way for years - just look at titles like Okami, Second Sight, ICO and Psychonauts. One of the latest titles to join the ranks of Great Games That Sold Poorly is Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, released last year for the DS and PSP systems. Over the last couple of weeks, I've been pouring most of my free time into the PSP version of Chinatown Wars that I received for Christmas. I'd rather not focus too much on my experience with the game in this blog, as that's something I'd prefer to save for a more involved write-up when I've finished the game's main story missions. Suffice it to say that the game is a pretty great re-imagining of a series for the handheld market. It looks great, it plays like a dream, and features some of the most varied and enjoyable missions the series has offered since 2002's Vice City. 
 
Chinatown Wars is much better than sales figures would seem to indicate Yet, in spite of all the praise heaped upon both versions of Chinatown Wars by the critics, it's sold pretty dismally to date. The DS version shifted a paltry 90,000 units in its first two weeks on sale in the States, and the PSP version failed to crack the UK Top 40 at launch. In the time since the DS version's release, its inability to sell has been pretty much universally attributed to three factors - its more mature content (something most DS owners probably weren't looking for), a lack of promotion on the part of Take Two Interactive, and rampant Internet piracy. Theoretically, the PSP version should not have been held back by any of these problems. Two Grand Theft Auto titles have already met with enormous success on Sony's handheld, with Liberty City Stories being the second-highest-selling PSP game of all time behind Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. Mature content is presumably not, therefore, a concern for most PSP owners. In terms of promotion, the PSP version of Chinatown Wars saw a lot more advertising than its DS counterpart, at least in the UK. Thirdly, while PSP piracy is a problem, it's nowhere near as widespread as that of DS piracy. Even with all this going for it, though, the PSP release of Chinatown Wars seems to have struggled just as much as its DS predecessor. Why? I think I have the answer. 
 
This link leads to IGN's video review of the PSP version of Chinatown Wars, hosted on YouTube. Site bias aside, it's a pretty good video review that does a decent job of pointing out that the game is a good one. But it's not the video that illustrates the problem - it's the comments written beneath it. A quick scan through the comments is enough to reveal that the general public consensus towards Chinatown Wars is, "OMG teh gaem haz 2D grafx, dis suXX0rZ!!!!!1!!1!!!11!1!!1one". People are writing off the game because of its top-down perspective, comparing its visual style to the other PSP Grand Theft Auto games and concluding that Chinatown Wars must be inferior. Informed opinions about the game, both good and bad, are lost beneath a deluge of superficial slander. Is this really the kind of community that my favourite entertainment medium has attracted? A community that will choose to shun a game for such trivial and ultimately irrelevant reasons? It certainly looks that way. 
 
Are we destined never to see police chases like this in a console GTA game? This fact worries me immensely. Why? Because it is these people, the masses, that have the power in this equation. Rockstar Leeds have crafted a brilliant game, keeping the handheld nature of the platform in mind and building around it. They've taken risks, made some pretty major changes and brought some genuine innovation to the GTA formula to make this game really shine as a portable experience. I don't think I'm alone when I say that some of these changes could even benefit the franchise's console counterparts in future iterations. Unfortunately, we'll probably never know. The ignorant public have voted with their wallets, choosing not to buy the title because it doesn't look quite as sharp as other games in the series. As a consequence, in spite of its critical acclaim, Chinatown Wars will forever be considered a flop, not only by GTA standards but also by industry standards. We'll probably never see a sequel built on the same engine, and all the innovations made by the developers will most likely be forgotten in favour of recycled mechanics that are at least guaranteed to put food on their tables. All this because of a camera angle. 
 
Some might say that I'm exaggerating a little, and maybe I am. But I do genuinely think that this points to a serious problem for the future of the games development industry as a whole. We are part of a wider community that's apparently willing to sacrifice genuine advancements and innovations in gameplay in favour of recycled content with a glossier coat of paint. One only has to look at the fate met by the titles mentioned in the first paragraph of this blog to realise that. Right now I can honestly see an industry future defined by stagnation, devoid of new IPs and innovation, where all that matters is annual franchising, unless we as the gaming public choose to do something about it. If you take one thing away from this long-winded, inarticulate rant, let it be an urge to pick up a copy of Chinatown Wars on either platform. The way things are headed, it might be the last attempt at genuine innovation in a video game that you'll ever get to experience. Thanks for reading, guys. I'll see you around. 
 
 
Dan
 
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Currently playing - Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (PSP)