GTA IV Delay: 360 Hard Drive Variable? PS3 Development Difficulty? Neither?

Ripten.com examines the facts in an effort to get to the bottom of the GTA IV delay. They take a hard look at what was said, promised, and what ultimately went down.

[Bloodmask]

Halo 3 releases on Sept.25th. Rockstar could have released GTA4 in Oct, Nov, or Dec. I don't think that any company would want to miss the Holiday season just bc of Halo 3. They would only be hurting themselves in the end. Besides these two games aren't even in the same genre.

Either the game is not on schedule or the PS3 version is crippled. Time and time again the PS3 version of games is delayed or has framerate issues if released simultaneously with the 360 version. Just look at Madden and NCAA...crippled. And GRAW2 and Rainbow Six Vegas needing almost a full year delay just to be up to par. Not to mention that the only version ever shown was the 360 version and the PS3 demo was a no-show at E3.

[BubblesDAVERAGE]

Why you guys keep saying all we see is the 360 version? Yet I havent seen game play footage form neither system,and R* had the Dev kits around the same time as first party...I dont think its ps3 personally its the 360 with the lack of a HDD..we all know GTA isn't pushing the limits far as graphics go and both platforms can easily achieve the graphics now it comes to space and how big they want the game to be and the HDD issiue Ms even said they would try and push the game back if HDD is a issue for any of there games but you xbox fans will never admit that...

[Nostradavis]

Maybe now is a good time for 360 owners and PS3 owners to stop pointing fingers at each other and start thinking about the possibility that this is all about money.

If you owned a company and you had your big money game ready to hit the shelves but you got word that another big game would also be coming out within just a few days time of yours, and that company was Microsoft, and that game was Halo 3, would you...

A) Go up against a multi-industry giant with deep pockets.

OR

B) Hold off and release it a few months later to an eager fan base with out as much competition.

[Barreldragon00]

I think its funny the main reason 360 people think its the PS3 fault is it that we haven't seen anything of the PS3 version and it wasn't at E3 because $50 million could not have anything to do with it. that it couldn't have been in the contract so Microsoft gets more publicity that its on the 360. I personally think it has nothing to do with any of the consoles they just wanted to polish it more or they found a huge bug in the game.

[quen_gta2]

I don't buy the excuse that Rockstar doesn't want to compete with the Microsoft AAA title Halo3, becaue by delaying it to Q2 2008 they will be competing with another AAA title in MGS4.

[nasim]

there are 0 pre orders for HALO 3 in JAPAN and EU

only a million pre-orders have so far been received for HALO 3 despite markrting it for a year or so.

GTA would sell all over the world incluidng NA /JAPAN and EU.

HALO 3 willl only sell a million or so in NA only .

x360 is thhe dead console in EU and JAPAN and has been overtaken by ps3 in NA too

[Bloodmask]

You say it is bc of the 360 core lacking HDD bc you live in an alternate Sony reality.

If you would look at the facts that most multiplatform games are delayed on PS3 and usually have poorer framerates you will realize that the PS3 version is usually the problem.

There are many games that prove this to be true..FEAR, NCAA, Madden, GRAW2, RS Vegas,.etc...etc. I'm sure you will bring up OBLIVION but that game also had a year extra development time.

The simple fact is you base your assumptions on blind hatred and emotion. I have just provided you a list of many games to prove that my scenario is more likely.

Can you name any games that are inferior on 360 bc of lack of HDD on the core model??

I didn't think so.

I realize that what I said is also only a theory but a more plausible one than your Yellow Brick Road jiberish. It must be nice to live in your padded room when there is this thing called "reality" going on all around you.

[Texas GMR]

I'm not saying your dumb or anything, but man are you stupid!

[FirstknighT]

"Time and time again the PS3 version of games is delayed or has framerate issues..."

The ps3 clearly has a history of problems. Look at Lair. That is a game that supposedly "did it right" ... Yet they also had to have a delay because of all the framerate issues. Nothing but problems for the ps3. Thanks Sony for screwing us up with the delay.

[Imalwaysright]

I said this once and i will say it again the only dev that opened his mouth was????????? Dan Houser... and what did he said???????? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAH GTA beeing delayed by halo????? Dont make me laugh GTA San andreas ALONE outsold Halo and halo 2 COMBINED and thats a FACT

[caffman]

No pre orders for Halo 3 in the EU and Japan? No wonder you have no tracks and 67 ignores!
Well if noone is ordering it, why is it at the top of Amazons chart?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/...

[Xeoset]

For all we know R* probably just wasn't pleased with the game and wanted time to make it perfect, making it perfect for everyone.

[CRIMS0N_W0LF]

Because several developers mentioned that PS3 is easy to develope. It exclude the "because PS3 had to develope" reason.

Halo 3 reason seem a little far fetched....

Due to the fact having space problem on X360 it might be true on that because of HDD.

IMO It may be the HDD problem or they are polishing the game to make it perfect, which I more think its polishing one.

[gta_cb]

... the only thing i have heard is that the PS3 is hard to develope for, not that its easy to develope

[heroman711]

seems logical

[Rhezin]

^^^F!ck that bullsh!t^, we all know it's the ps3 and its development issues because it's a sh!tty system. The HDD has nohing to do it, both trailer were done on 360 first and development went on the game first, 360 version is done it's the ps3 one they need to perfect.

[LOFT316]

with your stupid comment's you prove that you know absolutley nothin and you smoke the big un now go on home your mum's callin

[s8anicslayer]

rhezon you moron do remember that gta4 was supposed to be a ps3 exclusive, hence being made for the ps3 first then ported to the 360, if you want to compare systems and whos shifty, tell me arsswipe what makes the ps3 a sh@@tty system you poor ba@tard

[TheMART]

Before the game got delayed to 2008, Rockstar themselves said:

"The PS3 version will be delayed for 'weeks'"

I'm pretty sure that in the end that 'weeks' was a bit too much to release it good for Christmas. So they had to delay it because of their contracts with Sony that a 360 version can't be released to far ahead of the PS3 version.

[Nostradavis]

Where are you pulling that quote from?

[AnDy FrOm MiAmi]

mart you f#cking idiot they said it was a "week behind" not delayed you idiot.

[The BS Police]

Rockstar said that the PS3 version was two weeks behind schedule.

Just a correction, they did not say the PS3 version will be delayed.

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

[Korosuke]

Why two weeks behind goes to eight months deley.
GTAIV delay guessing topics is enough, It's just a lack of Rockstar's project management.
Nobody know what happened if Rockstar talk about it.

[Clinton514]

^ "weeks"

[AnDy FrOm MiAmi]

Rhezin f#ck that bullshit we all know is the xbox 360 and its last gen dvd9 that can fit such a big game like gta4 and dont tell me look at mass affect they were able to barely fit it and gta4 is way bigger ps3 is done its the xbox3fixme that they need fix.

[Gamer13]

The ps3 cause this delay its too hard to develope, with the 360 tools you can make a game within 7days - with the ps3 about 7months or so.

IM OUT...///"""

[LOFT316]

and for sure they did'nt need to dely it just because of halo 3 GTA4 would have sold more units than that pc shooter what ever the reason it don't matter we got plenty of title's to lookk forward to and whet it does get released GTA4 will be worth the wait

[ShiftyLookingCow]

bunch of nonsense, go cry to Sony to buy Rockstar

[MattFoley]

You do understand that Rockstar has been in financial trouble lately right? And that coupled with the fact that Manhunt is delayed until further notice putting GT4 out on only one console would be extremely risky. They'd be putting alot of faith in the prayer that people would run out and buy PS3s to play their game. Some diehards will buy only this game and a system but not with a price tag of either $560 or $660 In having a multiplat game they will make more money and be able to develop more games. Everyone wins!
By the way people in the industry speculate between 1 and 4 million preorders for Halo 3.Thats why Haze and UT3 are timed exclusive.
I'm glad its delayed not much comes out in Spring anyways and there are way to many games to play this fall/winter.

[s8anicslayer]

i agree with you loft it should have stayed exclusive. ms probably payed rockstar to elay the game because of halo, ms is trying to downplay all their 360 issues and release halo with no comp would only increase good pr for them. just another brainwashing scheme for the communists

[batman2million]

...and we've got enough of that already.

whatever circumstances may be, we're not getting the game this year!

Even if it is the ps3/xbox 360's fault, then what you're gonna do? point fingers? bloat? prove a point to some people online that you'll most likely never meet?

on the other hand, can someone SERIOUSLY tell me why all ps3 games are getting delayed and the 360/PC ones always come out on time. Regardless
of them being "crappy" games, they still go through same development...
and there is an issue.

[supnub5]

They should include banning fanboys, option.

[Tackle990]

That would be very, very nice.....

[FFVIIFan]

Make the game as good as possible before they release it.

[rogue zero one]

I don’t buy the whole release date because of Halo 3. If H3 was released in Sept. then why not release GTA4 in Nov. or Dec. that’s enough time for Halo sales to slow down. Anyway, i don’t really care since i’m not buying GTA4 anyhow. Just my 2 cents

[Solid_Malone]

Since the game has been delayed, ive been thinking whether they'd make a demo for gta iv, to make up for the delay. It would be cool if they were bringing it out, since Saints Row did release a demo of their game last year.

[CNIVEK]

Oh, that's right...because the admins are idiots. My bad. :o

[Nostradavis]

Ok Tom Selleck, go crawl into your Magnum PI car and drive back to the 80s...

[Barreldragon00]

I think he's right. this site is called "news for gamers" not speculation and my opinions for gamers. Less speculation and more fact is what we need.

[ReBurn]

Become contributors and go find some of the real news you want. Either do that or quit moaning.

[ben hates you]

ever thing, they wanted more developing time

[Rooftrellen]

This looks a little biased, just by the picure. I don't see how the PS3 or 360 fanboys are so different in their thinking. It comes down to this, both consoles have challenges that must be overcome. Which one was it? Neither or both equally, quite likely. So was it Halo 3? No, its a totally different game, and they know they would sell more just before the holidays even if they were making a FPS with a linear storyline with multiplayer being the big draw. GTA delaying because of Halo would be like Mario being delayed because of Metriod; there is no comparison.

I think the finger should be pointed right at Rockstar for this. My theory is that both consoles posed challenges that they could not get over fast enough, and finally, in all their rushing to get their game out there on time, they realized 2 things. They saw crappy games don't sell, by all the bad games going to the Wii and not selling, and a game that bad would ruin the GTA franchise. Even if they hadn't look at that, they also no doubt realized that what they have at this point is a glitchy mess, and rushing it wasn't going to fix it.

I think they could get the game out on time for both consoles, but it wouldn't be good on either, because, quite likely, they are well behind where they want to be (there would be no major delay just because a console is hard to develop for), and the game released in anything like its curret form would do nothing but hurt their bottom line much more than the extra development time.

[Nostradavis]

Roof -- did you even read the article? Did you even look at the full picture? I am going to guess no to both.

The article tries to debunk the PS3/360 finger pointing and points the finger back to Take Two, and the picture (if you click read full article and look at it in its entirety) shows both consoles deflecting blame towards the other.

[HeavyweightInTheGame]

Maybe they just realized that they were falling behind schedule and noticed that they would need extra time to develop the game to be the best that it can be. Does this logical reason not make sense to people? Would you rather play a crappy gta game in a few months or a great gta game in a few more months?

[ApocalypseShadow]

next gen systems will require next gen media to support "BIGGER" games.

it would only be a matter of time for R* to learn ps3 programming.but you can't continue to force bigger games on smaller media.there's only so much compression you can do.

you will never be able to fit an adult elephant into a mini cooper.

"if it don't fit,you must go ahead and quit."

ps3 will handle gta4 and any future gta.you can't say the same for 360.as 360 gamers would say,"microsoft will have a new system in just 2 1/2 to 3 years."then 360 gamers will have to upgrade again.why bother forcing games on last gen media?

last gen discs
last gen memory cards
last gen hdmi
last gen cord controllers*(core)
last gen text communities
20 gig drive limited in size because of BC rquirements

ps3-future proof for years to come.
360-future upgrades for years to come.

..................mag lev super train.............

[MrSwede]

Is it the Halo 3 rumor again?? Google it and see that this rumor occurred months ago, sometime in june already!

[DEADEND]

Its funny how people didn't see this coming, the games is suppose to come out in oct but at E3 they didn't show any game footage. They knew the game was behind schedule and they just waited till the last minute to tell people. Look the game is not coming out till next year can't we all just let it go and move on. It makes no sense to post comments pointing fingers at each other(fanboys)its not going to help what so ever.

[Jdoki]

Hmmm, Halo 3, PS3 development problems, or 360 HDD... let's see.

- The Halo 3 release date is unlikely to have impacted GTAIV hugely. September is pretty early to release a big holiday game. Knowing that Halo 3 will sell significant numbers regardless of release date perhaps MS have 'given' publishers the more lucrative November launch window.

- Look at how many games have been pushed on the PS3... Fatal Inertia, Juiced 2, Lair to name three off the top of my head. The weight of evidence is there, so it does sound plausible that this could be a reason.

- I doubt that at such a late stage of development R* would suddenly realise they HAVE to use the HDD. It's possible they need to cache a large amount of data to keep the game world seamless. I'd be surprised if they've only just worked this out 3-4 months before the original release date.

So, what can be concluded?

Possibly the PS3 being hard to develop for, based on the simple fact that more PS3 games get pushed than 360 games.

The there's the hugely outlandish idea (sarcasm) that maybe R* just needed more time to finish the game.

However, I think it's much more likely that Take Two need all the help they can get in the next financial year. FY07 was shot to pieces... http://ir.take2games.com/Re...

By pushing their 'cash cow' in to the next financial year (after April 08) they see a healthier bank balance when they next report earnings.

[CRIMS0N_W0LF]

woohooo more rumors!
http://i12.photobucket.com/...

[Yosking]

This game isnt completed they never showed an in-game footage. Also ms fault becuz they now this would of been a ps3 hit destroying their halo3 sale so they threw a wrench in the production of this game.

[Jdoki]

Err.. what?

How do you propose MS threw a spanner in the works?

Halo 3 already has over 1million pre-orders, I doubt MS were really concerned about how many units of GTAIV were going to ship on the PS3. Especially with a simultaneous release on both consoles.

The two trailers for GTAIV were done using the in-game engine on the 360 version. So while we haven't seen any game play footage, we have seen the quality of the in game graphics.

[ShiftyLookingCow]

no ingame footage shown! what are you smoking?

[madmike]

AND I THOUGHT I WAS MAD

[3sexty rulzzz]

THERE'RE TRYING TO CONJURE UP SOMETHING THATS NOT THERE. IM PRETTY SURE THAT THERE #S WERE MANIPULATED B/C THE GRAPHIC ARE SH!TTY AND THE TONS OF DELAYS. I DONT BLAME ROCKSTAR FOR NOT WANTING TO RELEASE ITS ITS TOP PRIORITY GAME NEXT TO THE JAUGANAUT THAT IS HALO 3. NO BODY WANTS TO MAKE GAMES FOR THE SYSTEM B/C ITS TOO HARD AND LACKLUSTER GRAPHICS RESULTING. 360 IS THE SHIIUT!!!!

[CRIMS0N_W0LF]

While in my opinion all the trailers we saw were not graphical like you saying. Can you next time kindly NOT type everything in CAPS? It just makes it harder to read and make people to ignore you.

[shysun]

Good read.....BUT Who knows?!

[calderra]

And since a bunch of people seem to have missed it...
ALL public showing of GTAIV have all been developed and run on Xbox 360 exclusively, verified by both MS and R* (you can hear it during the e3 conference, in fact).

[Batman77]

Of course they only showed it for the xbox 360, why would they show it for both the 360 and the PS3, GTA4 looks the same on both consoles anyway, it would just be pointless

[COCK]

It Was Bill Gates fault dey bribe dem SO DEY CAN DELAY IT N HALO 3 Wont have eny competition n it will go @ be 1 off the biggest sellers ever screw u bill gatesi hope u get aids for having anal sex with ur friends

[PimpHandHappy]

Who cares if it was lack of hard drive on one of the 3 360's or if its because the PS3 is a technolgy that very few ppl have used!

It doesnt matter cuz we are both waiting till 08 for this game and when it comes out we will know what the real deal is with these issues!

Peace out my fellow gamers and u should all just enjoy what u have and not feel the need to dismiss others just because they have something u dont!

[TheMART]

Would be funny though if XBL gets a GTA IV demo in October and the PS3 doesn't get it.

Then PS fanboys would go crazy

[MrTeenie]

I personally think it's the fault of the 360, not because of lack of hard drive exactly, but because the DVD disc. A blu-ray single layer holds 25 gigs, a hd-dvd which for a 360 to run requires an external player that cost nearly $200. So tell me how they are going to fit a game that will be larger then San andreas which was said to hardly fit on DVD-9 (dual layer dvd) going to fit on the same exact disk?

[TheMART]

Oblivion fits on a SL-DVD
Mass Effect fits on a DL-DVD

A big world isn't demanding that much for disc space. Many CGI movies are. Like the PS3 games will be probably because they 'need' to use BR discs. Much movie/CGI stuff, less gameplay. Not my type of gaming

[Anego Montoya FTMFW]

Oblivion fits on a SL-DVD
Mass Effect fits on a DL-DVD

and thats as big as games get?

MASS EFFECT you cant just FREE TRAVEL.

and OBLIVION everyone says the same thing, and everything looks the same.

so, those are GREAT GAMES but not a good example of how detailed a game can be.

you act the like START is the END.

[Omicronn]

People are educated now, just like years ago with CD's .

You NEED a bigger capacity for a better game..

Anyone who wants to regress and not advance is really just missing the point of how technology advances in all aspects including video games.

A larger capacity is needed all the time, and will continue to grow.

Some of these childish views from people remind me of the old computer days where they would say an old floppy 5" was plenty enough to hold a good game...

Come on... grow up, grow with the times, and stop cutting and pasting information that makes you think your information is "cutting edge"
The Mart Seriously thinks new games would not be BETTER on a larger capacity disc? lol

If anyone believes that, I have a bridge to sell you...

The Bottleneck 3 and Beta blu-ray player are advanced systems for advanced times.

If i wanted to live in the past, i would have a VHS player working with my TV instead of a Blu-ray player/dvd upscaler.

LoL

[HaKeRsCanRotINHEL]

No need too point fingers or get worked-up over it. Should be stellar no matter which system you play it on.

[Anego Montoya FTMFW]

R* has given SONY 2 exclusives, recently.
R* could become 1st party(rumor)
R* has said there having troubles w/ getting it on DVD.
I think there wait for MSs super COMPRESSION tool, their working on.

and the ps3 is the problem.

[ASSASSYN 36o]

Theoretically, Halo 3 could stop the earth from revolving around the sun.

[MonkeyMan]

If its ready on one system just give it to us already, if one system is a problem then just can it. Or at least give us a demo until march.

[Infernus]

Unless a lot of the people here have been living under a rock (not likely considering we're all members on this here news site lol) it's become quite a trend for multiplatform games to suffer problems in PS3 developement when it's not actually the PS3's fault at all...

The 360 has been out for almost 2 years now and if you add an extra year or so on for pre-launch development it seems quite obvious to start development on the more familiar system, and then do a 'straight-forward' transfer to a BD for the PS3 version. Makes sense no?

The problem with that is the PS3 can then only achieve what's been developed for the 360 version of the game as the 360 is the initial development system (you may see where I'm going with this), so if the 360 is what's used first and then after that the data is put onto a blu-ray disc the PS3 is not to blame at all. I shall explain...

Since MS paid R* for content and publicity of the game on the 360, it's highly likely that MS actually caused the PS3 version to fall behind, thus delaying the game. MS wanted R* to produce an E3 showing even though they were deep into GTA4's development. This then forced R* to try and prepare that, meanwhile they were showing off the 360 version to guys from the mags and news sites and couldn't show off the PS3 version (Therefore didn't further it's development because they had to work on the 360 version) because the exclusive MS DLC deal stated they could only demo the game on the 360.

This means that because of MS's greed to show off it's latest addition to the family, they ended up delaying the game inadvertantly. They wanted to show off the game on the 360 but completely wrote off the fact that R* wanted to release both versions at the same time. So MS had forced R* to fall behind on PS3 development due to all these publicity preperations (including the rather small demo at E3), R* had to delay the game, and now MS blames the PS3 version because it was behind in development...

Well I have this to say... If MS hadn't pushed and pushed and pushed on the R* development team for an E3 showing and pushed for a 360 working model for other showings and let them get on with what they'd usually do (That being, not showing anything until near-release) then maybe, guys, we'd have GTA4 this year. However, MS paid R* for exclusive content and publicity without considering the fact that the PS3 version would suffer. "Well duh!" you might say; but MS shot themselves in the foot with all this extra publicity stuff R* never usually does and ended up delaying the game all because of a little deal.

Delayed = Someone's fault? Not exactly. A $50 million deal is to blame...

[UltimateTroll]

What the hell are you talking about, the fact Mass Effect is gonna fit on to a dvd9 tell's you that the game could be sh!t, you said you don't want to playy CGI games, but the way i see it those CGI games on PS3 will still have more gamesplay than your sh!tty dvd9 and it's 8 to 12 hours gamesplay lol, your getting powered you know 360 is on borrowed time' The console was built with a flaw and even with the release of the unelite they didin't do a damn thing to help the problem, what will this mean in a year or two from now whem games get more advanced it will melt the 360 hardware and quite possibly burn down lot's of fanboys houses, MS fanboys that is like yourself, i hope you keep a fire extinguisher close buy, you need to get laid buy the way you sound like a complete geek with no life Mart. Halo games are crap.........

[fopums]

fanboys need to realise that if it is either the 360's or PS3's system being the problem that it wont make them any cooler if they guessed the problem right. becuase both will get the game at the same time and they will look stupid shouting "lookz! Iam so kewl for havings my haed up my @$$! lololol other system suckzors!"

[Funky Town_TX]

Move on hores. GTA was delayed. I will put my money on other games.

[Saint Sony]

It's delayed because there was a good reason for it. As simple as that. Why? WHO CARES?!

[ReBurn]

Why should you have to have a hard drive to enjoy a console game? I like having a hard drive for game saves and to store demos and media. I do not like having to install games to a hard drive to be able to play them. The 360 has been out for nearly 2 years now and up to this point it was never necessary to have a hard drive to be able to play games. If Rockstar can't develop the game without the need for a hard drive, but so many other developers can, then what does that say about Rockstar?

Personally I don't think that's the issue at all. I think that the game ran into production problems that affected both versions. I'm sure that whatever engine they're using is optimized for each system, so whatever the problem is must be something that affects both versions instead of a problem with one version that's preventing the release of both.

[Adamalicious]

I think if you spent as much time playing Oblivion on the 360 as I have you'd have no doubt that an HDD is a huge help for this kind of game. The boundary loading and pop-ins in the 360 version of Oblivion were simply unacceptable if you ask me. Great game for sure, but it runs so much better on PC or PS3 where you have an HDD standard.

[braane]

both consoles have thier fair share of problems... both also have great features... If you gonna be a fan of a certain console... than keep the opinions to people who care... because right now really unless you know a person in real life and can instil confidence in them they will never consider anything you have to say...

As for the Halo 3 nonsense at first it seemed to make some since... but then i realized most people who own a console will be getting more than 1 game over the christmas season...

Most likely me being a sony fan i will admit there is a few programming problems but I would have to say there is no way they would let a multi-million dolar franchise hold off for 8 months unless theres something far deeper than just o a programming issue... i will say it was probably a bug whether in 1 console or the other who kknows... could be in both games... they are also probably going to fine tune on some graphics, and pray that their launch goes well

i know i will buy it no matter what for the PS3

just thought i would throw in a heads up!

[Ray J]

hehehe...
this has some funny animation in it, take a look! :)

[IRONMAN457]

add on my bubbles ppl, xbots kept taking em off and dudes, HALO 3 wont have sh*t on GTA, most will sell on ps3 (6mil)

[Jesse]

Speculation is fun isnt it. Nothing here is really based on fact only speculation, unless RockStar comes forward and says "its because of the PS3 version" or "The lack of HD on the XB60 core system is the cause of the delay" then this is all a waist.

[Genki]

genuinely be because the game just flat out isn't ready? Nevermind what version, just the game itself? Isn't it possible that the developers just ran into some hurdles trying to implement some things that they would like to?

Maybe there's been a conflict of interest that we didn't know of for a while, and perhaps one side of that won and now we're facing a longer dev time to put in some things that may not have been originally featured. This is a pretty heavily anticipated, critically acclaimed and blockbuster series, so does nobody think that they thought of some new mechanics that they just had to implement?

Seems like we're all too quick to jump into the whole "my box vs your box" side of things, when it's not the damn answer to everything.

I think this is shaping up to potentially be the best gaming generation yet, but it's also far worse than the Genesis-Nintendo days with fanboys...FAR worse. Pipe down people, it's probably not as bad as you think. Whatever the case, we're all getting the game...same time...same gameplay.

[bootsielon]

It's that DVD is too small for open world games like GTA4. Microsoft would have had a great game had they used HD-DVD as a standard, but they chose to cripple it. Who cares if it has downloadable content if the game is a cripple?

[Adamalicious]

I like how Patcher refers to himself in the third person, like he's the queen of England.

[Adamalicious]

This is just silly. They delay the game 7 months because of Halo and that's it? Come on. Sure Halo is a big franchise, but I can think of one that's bigger - that's right GTA. If they really just wanted to avoid Halo why miss the whole holiday season? Especially when you're hard up for cash. To say that they are going to sit on a finished game for 7 months or more - especially on that is this highly anticipated, will probably cruise past 2 million units in weeks - is just ludicrous. This isn't even mentioning that the builds that have been shown behind closed doors clearly weren't anywhere near ready for "prime time".

All of this is to say - IT'S A DEVELOPMENT ISSUE.

Is it Microsoft's fault of Sony's? Well at this point I have to think both. Ultimately I think had it remained on PS3 only they might have been ready on time - so maybe more Microsoft's fault based on that. But it is their first PS3 title and doing your first game on any new platform can easily have unforeseen hurdles that can delay the best of devs. It's got to be tough to make deadlines in that situation especially when quality is of such importance. Also, I don't see how you can argue that doing this kind of massive sand-box game with no HDD to cache to isn't a major technological hurdle - remember that PS3 was the lead platform so they would have been working under the assumption that all users had an HDD when they started.

I'm really looking forward to it still, I hope it's worth the wait.

[Russbomb]

I like all of the sides of the arguement but I have to say that for a developer and its publisher to say that the game will release on a certain date means that they know for sure that the game will be ready by that date (which is a month or so prior because they have to ship it and market it).
So its not because of the core system or the ps3 development issues, its probably because of halo 3, because to think that a developer as well known and respected and as incredible as rockstar did not think about how far the ps3 version was until after they set a release date is as stupid as heck.

[JasonPC360PS3Wii]

So gamers always has to stop and wait for the PS3 to catch up before we can start moving again.

[Bill Gates]

Rockstar regrets EVER getting involved with Micro$HAFT....AHAAHAHA

Think what you want XBOTS but this delay DOES have something to do with the 3FixMe having NO STANDARD HDD....AAAAHAHHA

The 3FixME WILL NOT sell over 25 million units, and that's a FACT, and a SAD one for that matter....AHAHAHAHAHAA

[nobizlikesnowbiz]

I'm loving the new feature of N4G, that automatically doesn't show people with 1 bubbles' comments.

I don't even have to scroll past Bill Gates' bs anymore.
Nasim isn't far behind.

[Danega_Sciphor]

It's probaly both , Blu-ray offers more memory and more capabilties and they are probaly having a little trouble, they are probaly tryin to fit it all in the 9GB CD. Think about that homeboys!!!!!!

[Sovannah Phum]

I don't understand all the fuss about gta4 not fitting onto a dvd drive for the 360, I mean they could just ship the game on 4 discs.