Rockstar's 'Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' Shoots Its Way to #1 in Video Game Rentals

Rockstar's 'Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' Shoots Its Way to #1
in Video Game Rentals
Grand Theft Auto's $1.6 Million Debut Helps Video Game Category Blow Past Home
Video Rentals 


PORTLAND, Ore, Nov. 3  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- "Grand Theft Auto: San
Andreas" out-rented all other video game titles in its first week of release
earning an unprecedented $1.6 million in consumer rental revenue for the week
ending October 31, 2004, according to game intelligence from Rentrak's Home
Video Essentials(TM).

Remarkably, the newest installment of Rockstar Games' blockbuster franchise,
which was developed exclusively for the Playstation2 platform and delivers
extreme action and first person shooter excitement to gamers, outperformed the
weekly earnings of the top 10 renting VHS titles.

"The earning power of the "Grand Theft Auto" franchise is a true phenomenon.
Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City on the PlayStation2 and
Xbox platforms have grossed more than $45 million in rental revenue to-date,"
said Brad Hackley, vice president of business development for Home Video
Essentials at Rentrak.  "This is undeniable proof that video games have emerged
as a dominant force within the entertainment industry."

  Top 10 Renting Video Games Titles for Week Ending 10/31/04.

 This   Last                                             Weeks    Week
  Wk     Wk    Platform/Title                 Publisher   Out    Rev ($)

  1     NEW    PS2-Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas RCK       1   1,627,351
  2      2     PS2-Mortal Kombat: Deception      MDY       4     329,074
  3      1     PS2-Tony Hawk's Underground 2     ACV       4     320,247
  4      3     PS2-Star Wars: Battlefront        LAE       6     235,625
  5      6     XBOX-Mortal Kombat: Deception     MDY       4     228,659
  6      4     PS2-Madden NFL 2005               ELA      12     200,867
  7      5     PS2-Def Jam: Fight For NY         ELA       6     179,997
  8     10     XBOX-Star Wars: Battlefront       LAE       6     176,939
  9      9     XBOX-Fable                        MIC       7     175,441
  10    --     PS2-NCAA Football 2005            ELA      16     174,057

  About Home Video Essentials(TM)


Home Video Essentials(TM) Industry Data Service, part of Rentrak's
Entertainment Essentials(TM) suite of web-based information management and
business intelligence products, is Rentrak's exclusive point-of-sale (POS)
tracking system which measures weekly national consumer spending and
title-level performance via rental transactions on over 40,000 DVD, VHS, and
video game properties.

About Rentrak Corporation

Rentrak Corporation, based in Portland, Oregon, is the developer of the
Essentials(TM) suite of web-based information management and business
intelligence products used by clients in the media, entertainment, retail and
manufacturing industries.  Vertical market editions of Essentials(TM)
applications are customizable to the needs of each licensee, allowing marketers
to collect, manage, analyze and make critical business decisions based on
detailed, real-time point-of-sale and supply chain data.  The Essentials(TM)
suite of services offers competitive advantages to executives by providing
timely and actionable insight into their own company's performance in tandem
with valuable perspective against aggregated industry-wide data.  For further
information, please refer to Rentrak's corporate Web site at
http://www.rentrak.com/ .

   Contact:
   News Media
   Rogers & Cowan for Rentrak
   Sallie Olmsted/Susan Yin
   310-201-8800
   solmsted/

DATASOURCE: Rentrak Corporation



CONTACT:  Sallie Olmsted, [phone] or ,

or Susan Yin, [phone], or , both of Rogers &

Cowan, for Rentrak Corporation



Web site:  http://www.rentrak.com/ 

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