GTA IV DLC to sell 2m by year end

Rockstar's exclusive GTA IV content for Xbox 360 – The Lost and the Damned – has sold one million so far, and is likely to reach two million downloads by the end of the year.

That's according to analyst Michael Pachter, who said the second GTA IV episode for Xbox 360 is likely to arrive by November following the close of the company's October 31 fiscal year.

Pachter also believes that the next console instalment of the series will be released by the end of 2010 – and generate profits of over 50 per cent more than last year's GTA IV.

By 2010 the installed base of home consoles is expected to be around 60 million in the US and Europe, and as many as 30 per cent of users could pick up the game.

This compares to GTA IV sales of 12 million units, or 40 per cent of the 30 million PS3 and Xbox 360 users, when it was released in April 2008.

"We don’t think it is reasonable to estimate that sales of GTA will double the prior version, but we think that a 25 – 30 per cent penetration is reasonable, suggesting 15 – 18 million units sold," said Pachter.

"That means that Take-Two’s profits from the next iteration should be approximately 50 per cent greater than from the last version."