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GTA IV Delayed Into Next Year
1up has the news that Take Two is moving Grand Theft Auto IV's release out to Spring 2008. Sam Houser (the executive producer for Rockstar Games) says that the demands of creating games for the new consoles, along with the scope of the game, forced their hand to maintain the quality they wanted. "'With Grand Theft Auto IV, Rockstar is setting a new standard for next generation video games,' stated Strauss Zelnick, Chairman of Take-Two. 'Certain elements of development proved to be more time-intensive than expected, especially given the commitment for a simultaneous release on two very different platforms. We all recognize that perfecting the game is vital and I can assure everyone it will be worth the wait.'"
Rockstar was praying for not having to deal with DVD again before the new consoles were released and Microsoft ended up making a console with only 7GB of space for developers compared to 8GB or so for a normal dual layer DVD.
And Rockstar has been publicly complaining about being forced to try to fit a free roaming city sized world into a smaller amount of space than last gen. And what is worse is the 360 doesn't even have a standard harddrive to rely on for developers.
You have to have a huge amount of sympathy for the Rockstar developers who are having to deal with the 360. A delay was inevitable and understandable given the huge problems supporting the 360 is for developers.
Just think what it would be like if the next version of Id or Valve's game was forced to fit on a standard CD ROM disc with no harddrive installation...Sigh...
Unless Take Two uses the extra time to pull a rabbit out of their hat and deliver some extensive, exclusive feature(s) for the PS3 version. If the impending discount is true for the already cheaper 360, add the release of Halo 3 in and call it a much better Christmas for MS and a lump of coal for Sony.
They should rename the game GTA IV-ever
I'm not a Troll, it's reverse psychology.