GTA DELAYED

[timdown]

Grand Theft Auto IV delayed to 2008
[UPDATE] Take-Two pushes back blockbuster to next year, saying "additional development time required" to finish game; annual earnings estimate plummets by over $200 million.
By Tor Thorsen, GameSpot
Posted Aug 2, 2007 2:04 pm PT
The overcrowded monkey house that was the 2007 holiday release season lost one of its 800-pound gorillas today. Without warning, this afternoon Take-Two Interactive stunned the game industry by announcing it was delaying Grand Theft Auto IV to the second quarter of its 2008 fiscal year, which begins on February 1, 2008. Published by Take-Two subsidiary Rockstar Games, the crime-action title had been slated to ship for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in North America on October 16, 2007.

"Take-Two is reducing its fiscal 2007 guidance primarily to reflect the movement of the launch of Grand Theft Auto IV for the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007 to fiscal 2008, due to additional development time required to complete the title," the company said in a statement issued after the Wall Street markets closed.

Unsurprisingly, not having GTA IV in its 2007 fiscal-year lineup has put a serious dent in Take-Two's earnings expectations. The company's guidance is now for net revenue of $950 million to $1.0 billion for the 12 months ending October 31, and a loss of $1.25 to $1.35 per share. That figure is over $200 million lower than prior estimates of $1.2 billion to $1.25 billion in annual revenue--which would have been "break even results" according to the company's second-quarter earnings statement. With the AO-rated Manhunt 2 on indefinite hold, Take-Two now expects net revenue between $275 million to $300 million for its fourth fiscal quarter, with a net loss of $0.05 to $0.10 per share.

"Obviously, we are very disappointed to reduce guidance after having previously reaffirmed it," said Take-Two CEO Ben Feder. "Other than a matter of timing, the movement of Grand Theft Auto IV does not compromise Take-Two in any way. We are in sound financial condition and have a great product lineup."
gamespot

 

[Doberman]

Sounds like they stumbled upon some new technology? hmmmmmmmmmm. Or better ideas.

 

[2-0-Sixx]

god damn it!

 

[fillyacup]

Sam Houser, founder and executive producer of Rockstar Games, had this to say: "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."

this guy is a genius so i take his word for it....id rather wait

 

[Masked Lemon]

There won't be shit else to play in Feb anyways, and there are a SHITLOAD of games coming out this holiday. I'm fine with them taking more time on the game.

 

[SacTownRadio]

This delay is gonna hurt the Xbox360 more then the PS3

It was the prefect storm of gaming this holiday season for the Xbox360 to sell units

Halo3, Madden 08, GTA4...

I 2 would rather wait for a more polished game....but you know if this game was time exclusive to the 360 it would have made it's release date

 

[Masked Lemon]

360 still has Bioshock, Mass Effect, Halo 3, Madden, Call of Duty 4, Rock Band, Guitar Hero 3, etc.

They're going to do really well this holiday, just based off of Halo 3. That game is going to sell at least 2 million in its first couple of weeks.

 

[Likwid]

There is plenty on the plate this Holiday without GTA4. Though I'm disapointed about the later release I'd rather the game be it's best since we go a few years between GTA.

 

[Masked Lemon]

What games besides Madden are you interested in, Likwid?

 

[Hyfeeboy]

good! i have neither next gen system

 

[Likwid]

Madden and Halo will keep me plenty busy passed the holiday season but I'm looking forward to bioshock for sure.

 

[Likwid]

good! i have neither next gen system

Man you're missing out. I'm an xbox360 kinda guy but hopefully you can grab that or the ps3 at least. After playing those two next gen consoles then play ps2 and you will never want to go back.

 

[RB20]

This delay is gonna hurt the Xbox360 more then the PS3

It was the prefect storm of gaming this holiday season for the Xbox360 to sell units

Halo3, Madden 08, GTA4...

I 2 would rather wait for a more polished game....but you know if this game was time exclusive to the 360 it would have made it's release date

Not really. Halo 3 WILL sell systems. I know a lot of people who in a round about way like the delay. One less game they have to buy in an already crowded fall lineup.

 

[Masked Lemon]

Bioshock looks really good, but I'm not all that into fps. And there's no MP...


I'm mostly looking forward to WWe, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and a bunch of arcade games.

 

[ayo4yayo]

i already knew this shit was gonna happen but i aint trippin.

 

[ChuckTaylor84]

halo 3 iz good enough 4 me it givez me time 2 play it til GT4 comes out

 

[Masked Lemon]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=177018

------

No doubt making himself popular with Sony, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has stated that he believes the complexity of development for the PS3 platform has resulted in the delay of Grand Theft Auto IV from October 2007 until Q2 2008.

Pachter believes publisher Rockstar have a contractual obligation to Sony, which means the Xbox 360 cannot get GTA IV before the PS3, hence why both versions of the title have been delayed despite the development issues primarily surrounding the PS3.

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

"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."

Pachter hints that Take-Two shareholders are unlikely to be greatly pleased by this delay, hinting that procedural issues at the firm may be partly to blame for this slippage.

"While the delay of GTA IV was clearly not the fault of new management, we believe that it should have been better understood several months ago, and should have been communicated to investors much earlier than today," Pachter comments.

"The company has begun an initiative to improve the green light process for new projects, but given the delays of Manhunt and GTA, its process for monitoring projects under development appears to be a failure."

-------

From GameFAQs:

Somehow I knew the PS3 was to blame. People who saw GTAIV at E3 reported that it was a buggy mess filled with fluctuating frame rates.

I recently played Lair and its framerate is all over the place. Now rumors are circulating that its BECAUSE of the Blu-Ray format and its massive seek time problems.

This may also be the reason why the PS3 version of Madden 08 can only run at 30FPS.

So the truth it out, the PS3 is the reason that GTAIV was delayed.

I think we all knew the PS3 was the reason this game was delayed. We have been lead to believe that Blu-Ray would somehow make games better when in fact it is the source of many problems, including frame rate issues which are caused by Blu-Ray's massive seek time problems.

So Madden = 30fps, Lair = frame rate nightmare, GTAIV = frame rate issues caused by Blu-Ray seek times.

Thanks a lot Sony.

---------

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=176336

More info on LAIR, its buggy frame rate, and why Blu-Ray seek times are to blame for this problem.

 

[Arson]

wonder if sony wishes it could have made a seperate blu ray drive to sell? lol.

 

[2-0-Sixx]

Pachter states.

"We think"

"We believe"

"we believe"

So basically you just posted what some guy thinks may have happened. You should probably wait until there are some definite reasons as to why the game was delayed, rather than posting unsupported assumptions like you constantly do (like how you incorrectly stated "Sony does NOT have a repair service" without actually checking for yourself).

And about Lair, in that same thread that you pasted, someone who actually tested the version of the game said there were frame rate issues/bugs in the very final levels of the Preview version (the copy of the game sent out to game magazines for review purposes). Then, he goes on to say he tested a later version, and those problems were fixed. So once again your posting people's opinions and stuff that may or may not be true without really doing any research yourself. Here is the guy from the magazines quote:

We (Play) received the same review copy that I assume all the other mags did, which had optimized frame rates in the earlier missions, but poor frame rates in the last few missions and several bugs. We contacted Factor 5 and asked for all known issues and Julian himself replied with a detailed list, promising that the later levels were being optimized for frame rates, the bugs were being fixed, and that one aspect of the control would be improved. They said they would have a gold master candidate ready by our ship date, so I wrote the review on the assumptions that their promises would be kept, got the gold master candidate right before we went to press, and played that version for a few hours to confirm that they had addressed the issues. That gold master candidate was dated roughly a month ago, and as far as I know represents the game's final optimization.

I'm not sure what version the OP played—ours were never labeled "Preview Code", but a print mag's Review Code is sometimes a web site's Preview Code. Our last-received version of the game does not run at a rock-solid 30 fps, but I did not consider the frame rate problems to be an issue at all. I don't mind a few frame rate dips into the 20's here and there, if it's for the purpose of making an otherwise amazing looking game. I'm certainly not as sensitive to frame rate issues as the OP, but I don't think the average game enthusiast is either.

Just something to point out to the people who want to hate on Lair here—Sony and Factor 5 went all out to make sure the print mags got review copies as early as possible and frequent updates so that they could have reviews out before the game's release (which was at that point supposed to be August 8th, I think). Companies do NOT do that when they don't have a lot of faith in their games, so clearly both Factor 5 and Sony thought they had a critical hit on their hands, and any suggestion that they're trying to bury it or "send it out to die" is absurd. And having written the 9 review, I (obviously) agree.

In addition, gamespot reports the delay to be because of "Unforeseen challenges arose while finalizing the offline game to include online features such as leaderboards and medal systems."

 

[fillyacup]

fuck fanboys