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GTA IV Delay Rumoured
This past weekend Gamespot did a Rumor Control article on the possibility of a delay in GTA IV's release. Michael Pachter, of Wedbush Morgan Securities, predicted that the Take-Two board shakeup would result in some game cancellations and (in GTA's case) some delays. The article points out that the rumour is as-yet unconfirmed. The company has gone on record as saying, that the game would still release in October (the expected launch month), but that doesn't necessarily rule out Pachter's scenario. "'We believe that it is possible that the company will choose to 'throw in the towel' on [its 2007 financial year] by shifting the release date for Grand Theft Auto IV by a few weeks, increasing the losses incurred this year and improving the company's prospects for FY:08.' Take-Two's financial year ends on October 31, 2007. Pachter gave another rationale for a GTA IV delay: namely, that moving it to early November would put more space between GTA IV and Halo 3, which is arriving September 25. 'We believe that a two-week delay would provide a reasonable gap between the launch of Halo 3 and the launch of GTA IV, and would actually help sales of both games,' he said."
We keep hearing of the console version coming in October (or now November), but what's the deal with the PC version? Has a date been announced yet?
Seriously, has any highly anticipated game ever NOT been delayed? I don't think this guy is really going out on a limb here.
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Why would it be in Take-Two's interest to help boost the sale of Halo3?
Truth arises more readily from error than from confusion. -Francis Bacon
This just means politicians will have to wait a few more weeks to find a new scapegoat for all of the problems in the world.
if they did delay it to tighten the code, nobody is going to boycott the game. its going to sell crazy numbers the day it goes gold. shipping it in a nonworking manner could be bad for long term sales though. sometimes a small delay beats mountains of patches. poor launch code has killed one or two anticipated releases. patching after the fact isnt always good for business.
Second, they don't delay games because they're not ready. Never happens. They're one of those game companies that work their developers to the bone to make milestones. This is completely different from Take 2 - we all know about the DNF saga. Rockstar doesn't operate that way. They pride themselves on discipline, and they will work 20 hour days for six months straight if that's what it takes to release a game on time.
Sounds like a perfect recipe for causing delays. Overtired developers introduce bugs quicker than they can fix them. Working harder is counterproductive.
No, if Rockstar manage to stay on target with respect to deadlines, it's because they know when they aren't going to meet them, and decide to drop features. Remember the original GTA 3? That was supposed to have proper planes in it like the sequels, but they didn't have the time to do it properly, and so they ended up with one crappy "easter egg" plane instead.
Anyone that takes Pachter seriously ought to have their noggins examined. The guy is about as accurate as a coin flip or a Magic 8 Ball (tm). Over the years I've seen him quoted again and again and he's almost always been wrong. It's possible that I haven't seen his correct predictions, but anyone that knows anything gaming industry usually scratches their heads when they read quotes from him. In conclusion, you can spell analyst without the "anal" and he's got plenty of it.