GTA 5 "sucked dollars" out of Xbox 360/PS3 market, says EA

The release of Grand Theft Auto V in September 2013 was so incredibly successful that its arrival "sucked dollars" out of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 market overall, according to Electronic Arts chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen.

"I don't think anyone anticipated the level of that success," Jorgensen said during the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media &, Telecom Conference in San Francisco. "Fabulous, fabulous product and [it] did extremely well. It did, I think, suck dollars out of the old-generation software market."

"We expect that market to be challenged just because of the transitions to the new generation and I think it was extra-challenged based on that release," he added. "As reminder, [Rockstar Games] moved that release from the spring to the fall, so it even changed our expectations again as it got moved."

What he means is that GTAV was so dominating on Xbox 360 and PS3 (it has shipped over 32.5 million copies to date) that gamers spent their money on Rockstar's title instead of other Xbox 360 or PS3 games. It appears this had a real impact on EA's bottom line, as the publisher reported in January that it had lowered its full-year net revenue expectations due to "weakness in current-generation software."

However, GTAV's record-setting release was not disastrous for publishers like EA, however, as Battlefield 4 has sold very well since launch, Jorgensen said during the talk.