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'Grand Theft Auto V' racks up $800M the first day it's on sale

Image courtesy of Rockstar Games' website.
Image courtesy of Rockstar Games' website.

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 18 (UPI) -- Rockstar Games' "Grand Theft Auto V" set a video game sales record, taking in $800 million worldwide on its first day in release, the Los Angeles Times said.

The contemporary California-set game went on sale Tuesday.

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The previous record holder was Activision Blizzard Inc.'s "Call of Duty: Black Ops II," which brought in $500 million in its first 24 hours of its November 2012 release and a total of $1 billion in 15 days.

"All of us at Take-Two are thrilled with the initial response to 'Grand Theft Auto V,'" Strauss Zelnick, chairman and chief executive of Take-Two, the parent company of Rockstar Games, told the Times.

Detractors of the "Grand Theft Auto" franchise, which is rated M for mature audiences, have criticized the games for depicting gratuitous crime and violence.

Business Week said Rockstar Games spent a reported $115 million to developing "GTAV" and another $150 million to market it.

The publication said the 'GTAV' release comes as the "eight-year reign of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3" enters its final stage, with next-generation technology due to arrive in 2014 -- shoving current console technology into obscurity.

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