World-class stealing: Grand Theft Auto IV makes its global premiere

Rockstar Games/Take-Two Interactive have released the fourth installment of the popular Grand Theft Auto series for the Xbox 360 and PS3 -- easily the most important episode thus far for the fate of its publisher.

Sales of this game could help shareholders resist EA's $2 billion dollar takeover bid, as well as increase trading value of the company's stock. Already this morning, the company's value rose 17 cents a share in NASDAQ trading.

Thousands of stores in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and worldwide opened their doors at midnight local time to sell Grand Theft Auto IV. Here in the States, some of those stores included Best Buy, Game Crazy, and GameStop.

The release of this title had been delayed once already, due to the shareholder revolt that took place last year, and which ended with investors from ZelnickMedia being appointed to Take-Two's board of directors. Now that the game has been released, its path may determine the future of Take-Two and EA.

GTA IV itself has several noteworthy new features. Users are able to purchase new episodes from Xbox Live, and there is expanded nonlinear "sandbox" content like hanging out in bars, going on dates, and even surfing the Internet.

The in-car music that is such a popular feature of the series is now tagged with what is called a ZIT number. When a user likes one of the 200 songs in the game, he can dial ZIT-555-0100 on the in-game cell phone, and the title, artist and song are saved as a text message that can be accessed later on the new Rockstar Games Social Club. From here, the songs can be listened to in their full form and purchased from Amazon.com's MP3 shop.

So far, the M-rated game has not seen as much controversy as earlier titles in the series, or as Take-Two's Manhunt series when it was launched.