GTA IV to sell $400 million in first week

Sources close to Take-Two have reported it is expecting to sell six million units of Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto IV.

According to Variety, the games publisher has been able to predict its early sales figures based on how many units retailers have ordered.

Analysts said the game's opening week will see earnings of USD 400 million, which would make it the biggest videogame launch ever, beating out the current record of USD 300 million held by Halo 3.

This is an improvement on earlier predictions made by Wedbush Morgan, that the game will be responsible for around USD 450 million of Take-Two's expected USD 1.073 billion publishing revenue this year.

Take-Two is currently fending off a takeover bid by EA, whose USD 2 billion offer will come off the table a day before a shareholders' meeting and before the release of GTA IV.