Grand Theft Auto IV sales slow, gives EA upper hand in Take-Two merger?

The ace in Take-Two’s sleeve in its negotiations with Electronic Arts is the indisputable success of Grand Theft Auto IV. However, the game’s been out for months now and sales are bound to slow down. In fact, new data from the NPD Group shows that the game’s gone down one notch in their best-selling games list. Does this mean EA may yet get their way in their quest to acquire Take-Two?

Here’s some news on the EA/Take-Two merger negotiations for those interested in the politics behind video game development.

We all know that the ace in T2’s sleeve in its negotiations with Electronic Arts is the indisputable success of Grand Theft Auto IV (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360).

However, the game’s been out for months now and sales are bound to slow down. In fact, new data from the NPD Group shows that the game has gone down from the 45th best selling game last July, to 46th last month, although the game was still the top seller for that month.

With sales slowing down, there’s also some concern that the game might not meet sales expectations. Ben Charny, analyst for Dow Jones NewsPlus, believes that this may complicate matters in the merger negotiations.

T2 has always managed to delay the merger’s deadline by claiming that EA is undervaluing the company with its US$ 2 billion bid. With declining sales of GTA IV, however, they may be forced to accept that demand as their stock values decrease. Perhaps it wasn’t so smart for them to keep holding off negotiations after all.

In which case, well played, EA.

• No dice: Take-Two execs slam EA’s fifth buyout offer
• EA, Take-Two finally begin closed door talks
• NPD, Chart Track, Enterbrain combined global report: GTA4 on top

Via CNN