Take-Two delays "Grand Theft Auto IV"

[Bond]

http://www.gearfuse.com/wp-content/uploads/andrew/4_mar07/grand_theft_auto_iv.jpg

Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. (TTWO.O: Quote, Profile, Research) on Thursday cut its 2007 sales forecast and said it would post a full-year loss, before one-time items, because it needs more time to complete its highly anticipated "Grand Theft Auto IV" video game.

The company's shares slid 8 percent in extended trade following the announcement.

The game, which had been scheduled for release in October, is now planned for release in the fiscal second quarter of 2008, Take-Two said.

Source: Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUKN0238261720070802?rpc=44)It's a rather crowded fall for videogames anyway. Not a big deal in my mind.

[BreakABone]

"The only place you can play Halo 3, Madden AND GTA IV this holiday"

Peter Moore lies...

[Perfect Stu]

The best part about that quote is that 2 of those are on PS3. While the quote is true, it's pretty shameless.

*checks topic at hand*

NO! Dammit that's not good, I was looking forward to playing this soon! Bastards.

[DarkMaster]

I thought i had heard that it still needed a lot of work, poor framrate and such. mabye this is the reason for the delay. really dont need another game to play this holiday, anyway.

[Perfect Stu]

I thought i had heard that it still needed a lot of work, poor framrate and such. mabye this is the reason for the delay. really dont need another game to play this holiday, anyway.

Yeah but GTA IV was probably my most anticipated game of the year. Delay something like, oh, SOCOM Confrontation or Ratchet and Clank. Both games I'll probably own, but I was really looking forward to GTA IV ASAP.

On the other hand, next year's lineup is instantly much better.

[BreakABone]

I feel bad for Take Two though..

this is really all they got...

Sure they have other games...

But if the industry ever had a one trick pony...

[Jonbo298]

yeah, after the Manhunt 2 debacle thats going on, and now this, Take 2 is probably reallly hoping that with the extra time spent polishing up GTA IV, that it will hype it even more and have much better sales.

[Bond]

Industry analysts seem to think the Playstation 3 is to blame for the delay:

"We think it is likely that the Rockstar team had difficulty in building an exceptionally complicated game for the PS3, and failed to recognize how far away from completion the game truly was until recently," said Pachter."

"We think it is also likely that Take-Two had a contractual commitment to Sony that it would not favour competitor Microsoft by launching the Xbox 360 version of GTA IV prior to launching the PS3 version, and believe that any delay of the PS3 version necessitated a delay of the Xbox 360 version."

I wouldn't be surprised if this is true. Luckily there's a lot of great games coming out this fall so it's not that big of a deal.

[TheGame]

I'm actually happy its been delayed, since I'm not buying a new system until January. :) One less reason to be tempted now.