Move over Niko Bellic. A new GTA star may be around the corner already!

What with development for the DLC episodes, Rockstar Games isn't done with Grand Theft Auto 4 just yet. Despite that, analyst Michael Pachter is already pegging 2010 as the perfect time for the next console iteration of the sandbox franchise.

And since it's Pachter we're talking about here, he can't just leave it at a release date prediction. He's also forecasting that by 2010 - if GTA V does get released then - it will be able to sell 50% more than last year's GTA IV.

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.

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

Total sales for GTA IV on the PS3 and Xbox 360 currently amount to 12 million units so far. That's 40% of the 30 million projected installed base of the PS3 and Xbox 360 combined in Europe and North America. (In short, of all the people who have a PS3 or 360 in the west, 40% of them bought GTA IV). The "25-30% penetration" he mentions above is based on a projected 60-million combined installed base for the two consoles by 2010.

Another prediction from our weather forecaster: GTA IV's next DLC for the Xbox 360 could be rolling out this November. With the first DLC (The Lost and Damned) already breaching the 1-million mark, total sales for both the first and second DLC could easily reach 2 million by the end of 2009.

* "GTA Legends" fan art by Patrick Brown (deviantart page here)

---

Related articles:

• Koller also wants new GTA for PSP; reacts to GTA4 360 DLC, Chinatown Wars on DS