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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.'"
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.'"
.....So do we all agree the delay is for Hot Coffee v2?
How is this surprising when all they had to show at E3 was a dude driving down a street?
The PS3 is in desperate need of a blockbuster at the moment, Microsoft has Halo, Nintendo has Mario, and PS3 (while not a Sony creation) has GTA. Without Grand Theft Auto what killer blockbuster games do they have this X-mas? (I'm not talking "It's a good game with high review scores" I'm talking Buy the system, Pre-order the game, Million Seller right away kind of games)
Web Developers: Celebrate to our roots! Animated Gifs and Tiled Backgrounds, dont let our history die!
Hmm, no marketing emails from Take-Two about this one, eh?
...
Yeah, this is a jab at Take-Two for repeatedly sending marketing emails out about a release date for a trailer for GTA IV. No, not a release date for the game, just a release date for a short trailer that shows very little if anything about the game.
I thought it was a bit excessive for them to email multiple times about a trailer. I can see emailing once, but I got a number of emails about the same thing. Wow, big deal guys. I would have been more interested in the later emails if they were going to be showing something of substance in the trailers, but they just showed some typical cutscene-style stuff. Blah, sure I'm burning karma with this post but I found it a bit frustrating to get constantly teased about a game (no, not even the game, a TRAILER for the game) and shown almost nothing. Now the game is delayed but of course I didn't receive that in my email inbox, did I?
A recent rumor has Microsoft dropping the Core system (with no HD) and allowing game makers to require the HDD version of the 360.
It seems like this move might be giving Rockstar enough time to re-tool the game to take advantage of the HDD requirement by allowing for more content (which would also benefit the PS3), and at the same time letting the HDD requirement for games sink into the buying populace and see how well it works out.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The "M" rating is no longer a sure bet for GTA - and GTA is franchise gold. Rockstar has to get this one right.
2008 is a presidential election year - an election will almost certainly turn on core issues like Iraq and health care.
But it is all to easy to picture Rockstar in a another spectacular PR crack-up, the center of a messy, politically-charged debate over video game violence.
When Nintendo used a crap format (N64 carts) they lost developers. We're talking about Nintendo here, an established presence at the time -- the NES and SNES had dominated their competition. Microsoft has sold a total of around 30 million consoles -- 20M X-Box, 10M 360s. Rounded, because I'm lazy and that's close enough. the N64 sold around that number. In addition, Nintendo actually did well in Japan, something Microsoft does not.
If MS's decision was actually hampering developers, they'd leave.
So take your whining somewhere the fuck else because it doesn't fit in with REALITY. Last gen, Sony had launch exclusivity for GTA:VC and GTA:SA. They lost that this generation. If anything, signs point to Sony pissing off Rockstar, not Microsoft. You never even back up things like:
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.
Where? I have no seen such a complaint -- and you'd think someone who hates MS enough to troll EVERY SINGLE GAMES POST might have a goddamn link handy for this. And don't tell me "MS is paying developers" unless you have a link for it. I love how everything MS does is shady or being paid for, but Sony is just this great consumer friendly corporation. I don't know what fairy tale land you live in, but in the world I live in, both companies fucking suck when it comes to the way they treat customers.
(/rant off)