Vice City To Xbox, Not GTA?

Thanks to IGN Xbox for their report that Grand Theft Auto:Vice City may be coming to Xbox this Christmas, but without the famed 'GTA' name. According to the piece: "As many insiders know, the Grand Theft Auto series is supposed to be PlayStation 2 console exclusive, however sources reveal that Rockstar is circumventing the agreement by stripping the Xbox version of the title Grand Theft Auto, and simply repackaging the game as Vice City." If true, this would mean that Rockstar wouldn't need to wait until after the next GTA game was released to lose Sony exclusivity, and could put out suitably renamed/rebranded GTA titles on other consoles sooner, rather than later - a fascinatingly sneaky concept.

Comments

Just the sort of sneaky, lowdown, paralegal thing

[Red Pointy Tail]

... you would expect from the designers of GTA! Where do you think they get their inspiration from? Way to go!

I'd be damned surprised if this worked.

[andrew_dupont]

I'll be far less skeptical when they quote someone other than an unnamed source.

One thing I know about Sony--they're a big company, and thus have lots of lawyers. If Rockstar wants to wage a giant legal battle over the semantics of a contract, then I'd advise them to start of small and work up to multinational conglomerates.

Sony's grip on GTA series

[jvmatthe]

It occurred to me just the other day that EVERY GTA game is playable on the PS2. GTA was released for the PSX as was the add-on disc London 1969. Then GTA2 was also released on the PSX. (GTA2 also came out for the Dreamcast.)

Then along came GTA3 and GTA:VC, both for the PS2.

Except for GTA2 on the DC, no other console has had a GTA game. Not the N64 (duh). Not the Saturn. Looks like Sony's had a lock on this series for longer than I'd realized. Of course, there are the GameBoy Color versions, but those don't compete in the same market. And the mythical GTA3 for GBA still seems like vaporware.

The London 1969 add-on is cool, BTW. Plays better than the original GTA1, which is a bit choppy on the PSX. The prices on the PSX games are also way cheap nowadays. Is GTA2 worth playing?

Re:Uh...morals

[eMartin]

If that's bothering you, maybe Vice City isn't your type of game anyway.

I heard they're also...

[yotto]

...selling a new game to Xbox as well, named III.