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Take-Two: No GTA IV Until 2008

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

August 3, 2007, 11:28 AM

Fans of Grand Theft Auto will have to wait a bit longer as Take-Two Interactive Software said Thursday that the next installment in the game series has been delayed until 2008.

The company said it wanted to have more time to perfect the game, with its chairman saying in a statement that "certain elements of development proved to be more time-intensive than expected," and that its dual development for both the Xbox 360 and PS3 contributed to the delay.

"We owe it to the game's millions of fans, to our dedicated development team, and to our shareholders to make sure that Grand Theft Auto IV is a groundbreaking gaming experience that takes maximum advantage of next generation technology," chairman Strauss Zelnick said in a statement.

As a result of the move out of the current fiscal year that ends October 31, Take-Two was forced to change its financial guidance. Instead of breaking even on revenues of $1.2 to $1.25 billion, the company now expects to post a loss on revenues of $950 million to $1 billion.

GTA IV will now release in the late winter or early spring of next year. The company was adamant in saying that the movement of the release "does not compromise Take-Two in any way."

Shares of Take-Two have taken a hit as a result. On Thursday, shares closed at $16.55 after being as high as $17.35 during the day's trading.

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By coolmanfu

edited Aug 10, 2007 - 6:51 AM

I am a huge GTA fan and will wait for it to come out i personally think it is better than any game out there (mainly after san andreas since im from cali and the west coast gang bangin was cool) but when you stop to think about it, they can put this massive game on a smaller disk for xbox so does that mean that san andreas could fit on the psp? really guys think outside of having to wait a little longer, i mean we have vice city stories, so next comes san andreas stories and it sounds like it could very well be a future possibilty :)

Score: 0

By PostDeals

edited Aug 4, 2007 - 9:10 PM

Oh thats not good.

Score: 0

By SGD

posted Aug 4, 2007 - 9:56 AM

Looks like the PS3 will have an other holiday season without a huge title to help sell systems. Ouch.

Score: 0

By siryak

edited Aug 5, 2007 - 5:12 PM

Not a holiday title, but looks like MGS may be going multi-platform.(Doesn't effect me. I probably wont get it even if it does go multi. But the POS3 fanboys practically worship the game lol.)

HMV taking MGS 4 pre-orders for 360
http://www.xboxic.com/news/3384#comment-151174

Score: 0

By SGD

posted Aug 7, 2007 - 8:29 AM

I don't understand the hype with this game. I found the previous games to be very boring. Not to mention the new one looks like Resistance, many shades of the same color. If it comes to the 360 I will pass.

Score: 0

By MinuteMaid

posted Aug 6, 2007 - 6:24 PM

Oh dear, your last straw of hope just broke.

No MGS4 on 360.

http://www.gamesindustry...tent_page.php?aid=27372

Score: 0

By siryak

posted Aug 6, 2007 - 10:34 PM

Lol...Likely just a cover up.

"Oh dear, your last straw of hope just broke."

Also I gotta ask do you have trouble reading? Let me say it again. I DO NOT CARE ABOUT MGS, AND WOULDN'T BUY IT IF IT WAS ON 360.

Score: 0

By Steve Austin

posted Aug 6, 2007 - 1:53 PM

Hey it's true, MGS for the 360..

http://youtube.com/watch?v=aFYmrz4XoP0

Score: 0

By MinuteMaid

posted Aug 6, 2007 - 3:15 AM

Ain't gonna happen, it's a PS3 exclusive.

You can sit there an wait, but you will be disappointed.

Score: 0

By siryak

edited Aug 6, 2007 - 10:09 AM

I guess you missed the part where I said I wasn't planning on getting it anyway? No disappointment here. Although you just keep telling yourself it wont happen. The store is taking pre-orders and it has a date for the release. The Konami developer himself stated that he will probably haft to go multi to help cover the cost. It's GOING to happen.

Score: 0

By fadeblack

posted Aug 3, 2007 - 1:53 PM

I doubt another year will be enough for "groundbreaking gaming experience" or satisfying gaming for that matter. Shame they couldnt take the hit now rather than later when its flaws will be more apparent with more cost.

Score: 0

By superdynamite

edited Aug 3, 2007 - 11:59 AM

The truth is, they can't fit the game on DVD. Not enough capacity. The game was originally supposed to be a PS3 exclusive. Now they have to rework it for XBox 360. By the time it comes out (Summer 2008) there will be 200 other games on the market that are just as good, if not better. 2 Days 2 Vegas, Saints Row 2, etc.

Score: 0

By MinuteMaid

posted Aug 3, 2007 - 2:21 PM

I also suspect the 360's lack of HDD and limitations of the DVD9 to be the issue here.

Microsoft seem to be on the verge of announcing a "requires HDD" logo for box art. I suspect GTA IV is driving this requirement.

http://www.gamepro.com/news.cfm?article_id=127148

I wonder how long before the "requires HD DVD" logo program arrives?

The fact this news comes on the same day as the GTA IV delay, means they are almost certainly linked behind the scenes. Who wants to bet when GTA IV finally arrives, it will require a hard disk?

Score: 0

By siryak

posted Aug 3, 2007 - 3:21 PM

Looks like the fingers are getting pointed at either PS3 or both the 360 and PS3. None about ONLY the 360 though.

http://www.joystiq.com/2...-delay-surmises-pachter/

Score: 0

By MinuteMaid

posted Aug 3, 2007 - 6:20 PM

We will never know. Rockstar can't afford to piss off either Sony or Microsoft.

However it's obvious that Rockstar favor the PS3 platform (when Microsoft's money is not on the table), as the next 2 games are both PS3 exclusives, and the developers of GTA IV have already hinted at their frustrations developing around the 360's limitations.

I'm not denying the PS3 may indeed be part of it Rockstar/Take2 said a couple of weeks back, the Ps3 version was a couple of weeks behind the 360 version, but the learning curve problem is fixable, lack of HDD and HD DVD is not.

Score: 0

By siryak

posted Aug 4, 2007 - 12:06 AM

If I was MS I would discontinue the core right now and make it to where game developers can require the HDD. Most people already have one, and if they don't they are probably the type of person who buys it to play Madden, and probably couldn't name 3 other games! Believe me I have seen the type.

Score: 0

By xboco

posted Aug 4, 2007 - 3:08 AM

Everything would be solved if Rockstar just put GTA:IV on the Wii. Ditching $ony and Micro$oft, GTA could truly utilize the Wiimote. You can't get much closer than punching a thug or slapping a..well, you can't get much closer to being an outlaw than with the Wiimote (other than VR). Nintendo developed the Wii with adult-oriented games in mind. Think of a hotcoffee mod on the Wii [and with the Wiimote]. Now you get the idea :P

In all seriousness though, I'm glad Take-Two is taking time to perfect the game:
"They will remember a bad game, even if the game was released on time. They will forget a late release if the game was good."
-Shigeru Miyamoto (I think I butchered his quote, but it's along those lines)

Score: 0

By plague201

posted Aug 3, 2007 - 12:51 PM

My understanding is that all the previews and ads for this game are from the 360 version, is this true?

As for not fitting on a DVD.. hehe, supply me with a source of this information please.

Score: 0

By MinuteMaid

edited Aug 6, 2007 - 3:22 AM

GTA IV:

"Yet more rumors circling certain E3 parties suggested that Rockstar is having trouble squeezing the giant game onto one Xbox 360 disk."

http://www.gamesradar.co...eId=2006030811812750059

PGR4:

"You won’t see different times of day per city because this involves recreating all the textures again (one for day and one for night). Whilst this wasn’t a problem for our dev team, it was a problem fitting all this data onto a single DVD."

http://www.gamers-creed.com/?p=156

RAGE:

"Rage will use the second generation of id's "Megatexture" technology. What does that mean? 20GB worth of texture information will be squeezed through the engine's technology to deliver visually stunning scenes. Regardless of the compression, the game will require two DVDs for all platforms ... but the PS3."

http://www.ps3fanboy.com...-360-one-blu-ray-on-ps3/

Score: 0

By SGD

posted Aug 7, 2007 - 8:35 AM

You make it sound like disk swapping is something that is new. News flash its been around a long time. I don't care if I have to get up and swap a disk. What you will you be saying when and if you have to swap disks on blo-ray? Then all in a sudden it will be ok I'm sure of that.

Rumors ok that is worth noting as truth.

Score: 0

By siryak

posted Aug 3, 2007 - 12:24 PM

The truth is that is a bunch of BS you pulled out of your ass.

Score: 0

By dlab21

posted Aug 3, 2007 - 12:10 PM

doubtful that it will come out that late. if they can't fit it on one dvd they'll use 2 for the 360 version (its not like 360 owners mind anyways right?) and then the episodic content is all going to the hard-drive so im sure it'll be fine inserting a specific disk to go to one part of the city then the other disk, then if you want to play the extras have to go and load from the hdd.
saints row 2 wont be as good.

Score: 0

By drumcat

posted Aug 3, 2007 - 11:50 AM

Good! Get the game right!

As much as these guys catch flack for doing some out-there things, they really are a good software company.

Score: 0

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