
Sad news for a lot of fans tonight, GTA IV has been delayed due to "additional development time required" to complete the title. The game is now planned to be released in the second quarter of Rockstar Games' parent company, Take Two, which stretches over February, March and April.
We received this e-mail from Rockstar Games:
Hi everyone,
I wanted to tell you personally that we have decided to move Grand Theft Auto IV back a bit. We also want to thank you for all the incredible support you've shown us over the years. We’ll have more information very soon, but in the meantime here’s a release we’re sending out to the press.
Best wishes,
Sam
Sam Houser
Founder Rockstar Games
The press release states that the parent company is updating its financial guidance, of course due to the delay, where we get a clear reason for pushing back the title...
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."
More details are to follow soon, and a conference call that can be streamed via the web is scheduled for 5:30 PM EDT. We'll update you as we receive more details.
Press Release: Take-Two
UPDATE: Nothing else came out during the conference call, just reassurance that they want to bring out the title at its best, and not finish it up sooner to meet the holiday release schedule.