No Grand Theft Auto IV In 2007

By: John JCal Callaham

In a major shock, this Take Two Interactive press release announces that their Rockstar Games division has decided to delay the release of their long awaited open world crime action game Grand Theft Auto IV. The game was originally planned for release this October but now GTA IV has a new release date of Take Two's second quarter of its 2008 fiscal year (meaning Feburary-April 2008)। This delay, plus the delay in the release of Rockstar's Manhunt 2, will drastically affect Take Two's financial results causing the company to lose about $200 million in revenue for its fiscal 2007 year। Here is a snip:

Strauss Zelnick, Chairman of Take-Two, stated, "With Grand Theft Auto IV, Rockstar is setting a new standard for next generation video games. 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. 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।"

Sam Houser, Founder and Executive Producer of Rockstar Games, added, "The new consoles are allowing us to create the Grand Theft Auto game we always dreamed about. Every aspect of the game and its design has been completely transformed. The game is huge and is pushing the hardware platforms to their absolute limits. The top engineers from Sony and Microsoft are working closely with the team in Edinburgh right now, helping us to fully leverage the power of both platforms. As always, our goal is to surpass even the wildest expectations of the game's fans, and to create the ultimate high definition video game experience."