Slashdot Mirror
Grand Theft Auto IV Unveiled On 360
Despite expectations that this would be the least eventful of the E3 pre-conferences, Microsoft's Peter Moore drops the news that Grand Theft Auto IV will be on Xbox 360. Rockstar and Microsoft have teamed up to do exclusive episodic content in the GTA gameworld for the 360. Slated to release October 16, 2007 in North America, October 19 in Europe. Other details include lots of support for Live Arcade titles (Sonic, Galaga, Street Fighter II), the official unveiling of Shadowrun for the 360 and PC, the airing of the Halo 3 Teaser Trailer (which is already on Xbox Live), and much discussion of 'Live Anywhere'. This last is an expansion of Xbox Live to PC and cell platforms in addition to the Xbox arena.
XBox 360 with 20GB hard drive ($400) + HD-DVD drive addon ($100?) + 1 year XBox Live ($50) = $550.
Playstation 3 with 20GB hard drive ($500) + Bluray drive (included) + 5 years online (included) = $500.
Sony are the arrogant ones here, though, right? OK, just checking. I'm finding it increasingly hard to keep track.
By the way, Zonk, GTA4 isn't an XBox exclusive.
The game will be released for both the PS3 and the Xbox 360 on October 16th, 2007.
The Xbox version will have "episodic releases" via Xbox Live.
Sounds like the new GTA will actually be for both the 360 and PS3, but extra GTA episodes will be availiable exclusivly through XBox Live. So the original game will be for both but there will be extra content exclusive to the 360. Stay tuned for more details folks, but the MS conferance.... well all I can say is .... WOW!
"reality has a well-known liberal bias" - Steven Colbert
way to read the press release you linked to :p
"Grand Theft Auto IV will be simultaneously available for the PlayStation®3 and Xbox 360(TM)"
I think that settles it.
"Something's wrong with you...and I hope we never do meet again." - Deftones When Girls Telephone Boys
Uhhh...no. October of 2007...thats 2007 not 2006
l ?.v=1
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/060509/20060509006185.htm
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 9, 2006--Rockstar Games, the universally-renowned publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO - News), is proud to announce Grand Theft Auto IV, the next-generation console debut of the genre-defining Grand Theft Auto franchise. Developed by world-class designers Rockstar North, Grand Theft Auto IV will be simultaneously available for the PlayStation®3 and Xbox 360(TM) and is currently planned to be in stores in North America on October 16, 2007 and in Europe on October 19, 2007.
Bill Gates' entrance!
:-D
"What is that in Bill's hands? He's holding a tiny white object and can't stop fiddling with it."
Finally! News that Bill truly is one of us - except hes probably more compulsive about the whole thing.
"While the game will be available for both the PS3 and 360, only XBox Live will have access to the 'Throwing Chairs Monkeyboy' mod. Rockstar CTO Paul Walker was quick to go on record that the game will *not* become a single-platformer: 'We would never marginalize our most successful demographic, overweight white suburban kids who wish they were dangerous Negroes.'"
"Made up/misattributed quote that makes me look smart. I am on
This is actually pretty cool. It means that the acheivements and gamerscore are coming to Vista. Xbox live support for multiplayer (good bye gamespy) and its cross platform. I know PC gamers will dispise the concept of playing with console kiddies but given the chance I think this will be huge. Friends lists, video and voice chat, gamerscore, acheivements this is all big and welcome news for Vista. The additional connectivity to the windows community will only help the 360. Leave it to microsoft to once agian figure out how to leverage its OS monopoly to help in other markets.
Ves
Even if the game is only exclusive on 360 for a few months and then comes out on other platforms (as is currently the case with ps2 GTA), the majority of the sales happen during the exclusivity period. After that, the hype pretty much dies. I was amazed to see how low the sales numbers were for the GTA games on xbox.
So, whatever is the case with this GTA exclusivity for 360, it's a huge blow against sony. In north america at least.
Yeah, seems to be a misunderstanding. GTA4 will be released to both platforms, but RockStar and MS have an exclusive agreement where additional espisodes will be released exclusivly via Xbox Live if I understood the conferences correctly.
"reality has a well-known liberal bias" - Steven Colbert
if anyone wonders, here the original Summary:
Grand Theft Auto IV Unveiled As 360 Exclusive
Posted by Zonk on Tuesday May 09, @04:03PM
from the didn't-expect-that dept.
E3 Microsoft XBox (Games)
Despite expectations that this would be the least eventful of the E3 pre-conferences, Microsoft's Peter
Moore drops the news that Grand Theft Auto IV will be an Xbox 360 exclusive.
It is optional, you don't have to buy it, you aren't missing anything if you don't get it
... The optional content is exactly what you miss.
...
Thank you Mr. AC! Folks, please mod the AC up so people can see what a fucking douchebag Zonk is.
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
Whoa, an "urban simulator" on the XBox?
How innovative!
I would easily pay $4.16 a month for the kind of service that Microsoft is going to offer, cross platform, via Xbox Live..
But, I guess I understand that some people just can't give up that extra Quarter Pounder w/Cheese Meal once a month..
As others have commented, it will be released for both PS3 and 360 at the same time.
What no one is mentioning is the PC release. Rockstar tends to wait for a few months after console release before releasing the PC version. They're not being jerks. They're retooling it for the purpose of bringing it over to PC. That's why the GTA series hasn't suffered from consolitis, by and large. I'll be looking forward to GTA IV on the PC, even if I have to wait half a year.
The expectation of GTA lock-out was the one barrier which has kept me from seriously considering the 360.
The X-Box exclusive DOA series is *almost* enough on its own to make me want a 360, and hopes for more HALO games also has me rather jazzed over it. My "wait and see" attitude has mostly been based on a fondness for GTA:III & GTA:VC, which were exclusive to the PS2 for about a year.
If Sony does not have the GTA series locked up in their stable, what is there left to wait and see? BluRay? The Wii controller?
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
$500? FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS ?!!
And that's without even a game!
I can give a starving village in Africa a herd of four goats that would make them self-sufficient for that kind of money! (Hah, I bet you thought I was gonna say I could buy blowjobs for a year!...)
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
If I remember correctly, GTA 4 (IV) is Vice City...
San Andreas is really 5 (V).
Any NEW GTA whatever the name would technically be 6 or 7 (if you count Liberty City Stories).
Episodic content is just a way for them to raise the price of the game without raising the price on the pricetag in the stores.
I'm sick of this crap where game companies think they can get $1.00 out of us for what would have been $0.10 of content had it been in an expansion pack, or included in the game to begin with. I'm also pissed at all the stupid moron gamers that buy this crap that 'costs less than a cup of coffee' because they don't understand that they're paying way more money in the long run; thus letting the micropayment mind-games continue.
I wish one of the next-gen consoles didn't have an online component, so they wouldn't be able to pull this crap. I'd buy that console instead of the other ones.
Changing material after the fact destroys any context for comments written to rebut the claims published on slashdot. May I suggest a retraction next time? It's the honest thing to do.
And your comments about CPU utilization are wrong. The multiple cores on the 360 don't do much without being programmed for. IIRC, Microsoft has said that none of the current crop of games take much, if any, advantage of the extra cores.
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
AFAIK, VC and SA is based on the GTA3 engine. GTA4 is a new engine, hence the new name.
OK I really thought I was over the whole Halo thing and was MUCH more looking forward to info about Too Human, but DAMN! For a teaser trailer all real-time generated in the actual game, that was pretty cool! OK so maybe I am still a Halo junkie and have just been in denial 'cause I REALLY cannot wait for that game!
"reality has a well-known liberal bias" - Steven Colbert
It's too bad that Nintendo generally (and Miyamoto specifically) hate GTA. A Nintendo-style sendup of GTA starring Mario would be pretty cool. He could go into business selling mushrooms on the street, aggressively taking territory from Bowzer's gang [of Haitians].
The magic of E3... transforming "Offtopic -1"'s to "Insightful +1"'s everywhere!
>> Standing on head makes smile of frown, but rest of face also upside down.
Assumably, Vice City and San Andreas don't count as 4 since they were just modifications of 3, with some improvements. Perhaps 4 is going to be completely redone?
The way I look at it is the changes in the game engine.
GTA1 (London being 1.5) - Top Down
GTA2 - 3D accelerated Top Town
GTA3 (Vice City and San Andreas being 3.2 and about 3.6) - 3rd Person
GTA4 - Top down?
Wow...GTA on the 360...IN 17 MONTHS!!! Why is this exciting news exactly? I am sure there are a lot of great games coming out on all the consoles in late 2007. The reason we haven't heard about them - because they are saving them for E3 2007.
What is MS going to talk about at next year's E3, Halo 8, arriving at your local game store October 7, 2059.
The world moves for love. It kneels before it in awe.
b)Depends on the publisher. Sony movies says for their initial blu-ray movie release they'll turn off the secured output requirement. Other publishers may not be as nice. Also all upscaling dvd players require HDCP out.
c) All depends if ps3 has unified video/sound port like the 360. My guess they'll probably have one but you never know its sony were talking about. They've been acting pretty irrational lately.
Any way I could careless what sony does, i'm getting a wii in november. I sure as hell not blowing $500 on a console. HD optical disks isn't on my plate till someone wins format war or a combo hddvd/bluray player is released at a reasonable price.
Have you ever been to a turkish prison?
but why would PC gamers pay to play on Live when they can play on free servers elsewhere?
Nearly every single Live Player has a voice communication mike. You don't have to deal with cheaters on live (I have never encountered a cheater on live, and I am not aware of any cheating software - the only kind of cheating I am aware of is sometimes player intentionaly lower their bandwidth to cause themselves to lag... but there is no software they lets people see through walls or aimbots or whatever like on the PC)... every player has an ID tied to their credit card, so people are less likely to engage in racist/stupid behavior, and when they do I can permanently ban them from my games. I can maintain an integrated list of all the players I like, send them an invitation to play directly from the game, I can see what games they are playing directly from the game.
It is definitly worth the $60 a year for the service they offer.
Don't think of it as changing the story... think of it as a "patch".
Similarly, you can think of CmdrTaco's dupe of this story tomorrow morning as "episodic content".
See? Now XBox Live really is everywhere!!!
If you remember, the uproar over the horse armor pack led them to offer the next content at a much better price.
No it didn't. It prompted them to offer the later content at a slightly reduced price. ($0.10 less? Give me a break.) I have the game. I love the game. I have the Orrery add-on... If taken as a fraction of a $35 expansion pack, there is about $0.25 worth of content in it.
I'd buy the "expensive to create next-gen content" argument if the game weren't 10% content and 90% cut and paste copies of that content, or perhaps if there were more that 10 minutes of gameplay in there for $1.89. Episodic content is just a marketing ruse to get people to pay 10x more for expansion content than they used to. Next gen content isn't 10x more expensive to create, and it's not worth 10x more to buy. End of story.
The reason episodic content is attractive, from the perspective of a game developer, derives from both increased revenue and decreased costs. The increased revenue is what you term the "money milking" argument - it is true that gamers who like a certain franchise will be willing to spend $10 a pop on 6-8 hour episodes, and they might end up spending $100 over a year or so on episodes for a favorite game. The cost of producing a short episode is relatively small, compared to the cost of producing an entire game. Not to mention consumer expectations - when gamers buy a new game, they expect something innovative. When they buy a new episode, they expect a new twist on the same old thing. Again, it's easier for gaming companies to do it this way.
I have no clue what the guy who modded you up was smoking, but that's the most retarded troll I've ever seen. People have every right to complain about it AND not buy it. If people don't buy the extra content it doesn't show up in their statistics other than as someone who didn't buy it. If people however complain loudly in various forums and get others informed so they in turn complain loudly, it shows up in a completely different way.
/.
Thus I'm proud to say: This "extra content" has convinced me not to buy either an Xbox360 or a PS3, I'll just go with the Nintendo Wii now. I've been a Sony fanboi since PSX was released, and I bought an Xbox for excellent games like Halo, Fable and Jade Empire. However, as of their new "feature enhancements" to the next generation, I'm switching camps. There's more innovation in Shigeru Miyamoto's left testicle than in all parts of of Sony and Microsoft combined.
See? It's my right as a consumer to express my dissatisfaction, the more vehemently the better, just as it's your right to be a dick on
You'll notice it is 2007 we are talking about here...
Why was the Nintendo 64 shipping without a disc drive "the biggest mistake in video game business history?"
Because the market was demanding more storage capacity than ROMs could offer (16-32MB early in the N64's lifetime, 64MB later). Nintendo lost Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest to PlayStation because of this.
What are the advantages of CD/DVD again?
10x the capacity of the largest N64 cards ever manufacturered. CD soundtracks, pre-rendered video, streamed textures - you name it.
At least in those days when you could fit an entire game on a ROM, tell me again why it was a bad idea?
As stated above, the industry wanted more space. It was sort of like a "gaming cold war". One game company moves to CD-ROM, and produces a fantastic work. Next thing you know, companies feel they have to move to CD-ROM for certain genres or perish.
Because it didn't require ridiculous loading screens?
The Nintendo 64 was released 2 years after the PlayStation. Had Nintendo approached the system with an optical drive instead of cartridge, they could have easily put in a 4x or 6x CD-ROM drive, beating the pants off Sony's (2x drive) loading times.
N64 games could have had more varied textures, voice acting, pre-rendered movies, CD audio, the works. Instead, they had the same old thing with 3D graphics.
By the time the N64 was released, game makers had already figured out streaming techniques that made PS games MUCH larger and more varied in their textures than previously thought possible. If Nintendo had paid attention to the market, they would have known developers would catch on.
Because it made life harder for piraters?
It made life harder for the game makers as well. They had to eat the extra cost of building a cartridge, and it meant higher game prices. A 32 / 64MB cart required MULTIPLE ROM chips, plus a PCB with an edge connector. This was non-trivial to manufacture, and made the N64 games more expensive.
Nintendo proved THEMSELVES that you can make an optical format that is all but pirate-proof...they just did it one generation too late, and it hurt them in marketshare.
Man is the animal that laughs.
And occasionally whores for Karma.