"Grand Theft Auto IV" delayed until 2008

Game creators blame technical difficulties caused by a simultaneous release on both the XBox and the PS3.

Published August 3, 2007 3:58PM (EDT)

Now what am I going to do this fall? Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar games, announced late on Thursday that it would delay the very-anticipated launch of the next installment in the "Grand Theft Auto" series until at least April of 2008. "GTA IV" had been scheduled to come out this fall on both XBox 360 and Playstation 3, but that schedule proved impossible, Strauss Zelnick, the chairman of Take-Two, said in a statement.

"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," Zelnick said. "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."

The game blog Joystiq dug into another thorny issue -- Take-Two had made a deal with Microsoft to bring out exclusive "GTA" add-ons for the XBox in March. Now it looks like the exclusive episodes won't be released until about the summer or the fall.


By Farhad Manjoo

Farhad Manjoo is a Salon staff writer and the author of True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society.

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