We're a little late on this news (we blame Call of Duty 4, wholeheartedly), but cover it we must for it concerns what may be the biggest release of 2008. Yes, Grand Theft Auto IV. Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan has a somewhat worrisome prediction regarding EA's courtship of Take Two. In a recent episode of Bonus Round, Pach-Attack noted, "I think if EA takes over Take-Two, they have an economic incentive to delay [Grand Theft Auto IV]." The reason for this, naturally, would be to debut GTAIV during the much more lucrative holiday season at the end of the year (as was the original plan for 2007). Pachter says that Take Two can't afford to delay the game on their own because they "need the money."So there you go. If you didn't have a vested interest in the EA / Take Two saga, you do now (assuming you want some sweet, sweet GTAIV anyway). Let's look on the bright side though. If EA does buy Take Two, that means the Iron Man movie still has a fighting chance, right? In the meantime, GTAIV is still scheduled to release at the end of this month.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
4-08-2008 @ 4:22PM
MrQueso said...
Bigger than Gears 2? i doubt it. Personally i blame the PS3 because of the first run of delays.
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4-08-2008 @ 4:28PM
Nintendo is fail said...
It WAS because of the PS3
4-08-2008 @ 5:35PM
The Sound said...
Yes, this game IS bigger than Gears. Especially considered the number of people who've played/bought past games (20+ million I think), the amount of money MS spent to get 'exclusive DLC', is expected to sell 10+ million copies, and has been labeled as one of the best games ever from pre-release reviews.
Delays or not, the one *good* thing about delays is it gives devs time to polish a game and make it all they can be, even if it's because of 1 system.
4-08-2008 @ 5:49PM
Lars said...
Well, they could have released it on 360 first, then continued working on the PS3 engine. But the way they did it is good. Instead of finalizing one version then porting it, they continued to develop the game while working on the other engine. Plus I think it's good to release a game on both consoles at the same time rather than staggering release dates. So, the 360 gets a better game than they would have gotten, and the PS3 gets it at the same time. Win-Win.
4-08-2008 @ 5:53PM
nvc said...
Are you that much of a fanboy that you think Gears2 would be anywhere near as popular as GTA4? Seriously, come on...
4-09-2008 @ 4:46PM
Erik said...
10 Million? I think thats a little pushing it. Most likely it will sell about as much as Halo 3 and CoD4. Both of which were fantastic. the reason being that, not as many people have come in this console cycle as the last. And in my opinion, Gears of War 2 will be bigger. Yes, I will like GTA 4, but GTA get boring after a while, so they need to add some good stuff. Hopefully Multiplayer will be good.
4-08-2008 @ 4:26PM
hunter2223 said...
Wouldn't it be pretty much impossible to delay it at this point? I mean, really the publishing process has to be well under way, you don't just crap out 10 million discs in a night... that takes time.
Add in the Extra Printing time required for Blu-Ray.
I'm willing to say most everything is already at the presses, minus maybe the game itself because we haven't heard of a Gold yet, but not every company announces those.
I'm putting even money down that it comes out 4/29
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4-08-2008 @ 4:51PM
Syn said...
There won't be a delay. It's coming out April29th.
The manager at EB(Gamestop) after asking him about the delay said; " We actually just had a meeting about this in the morning, and it is coming out April 29th. It's just a rumor about the delay."
4-08-2008 @ 5:36PM
The Sound said...
Then it would sit around in bins until it comes time for release.
I'd be willing to bet, hundreds of thousands of copies are already sitting there, waiting to be sold anyway.
4-08-2008 @ 6:16PM
Anticrawl said...
It isn't even a rumor, just speculation from an analyst. An analyst who has been horrificly wrong about every gaming prediction he has ever come up with. It wouldn't make any logical sense to delay the game even if EA took over. The gaming drought is now and a big title releasing during it would sell insanely well. If it was released in the fall it would have to compete with god knows how many AAA titles.
Also what too X3F so long with this article, their sister site Joystiq has had it up since last week.
4-08-2008 @ 7:20PM
xenocidic said...
Even if T2 shareholders are dumb enough to tender their shares (which I doubt) , EA would be universally stupid to delay this launch.
4-08-2008 @ 4:26PM
Trogdor said...
GTAIV is going to be bigger than Gears 2, guaranteed.
If EA manages to get control of Take Two and this happens there will be a pretty large backlash....of course people will still buy their games so they won't care anyway.
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4-08-2008 @ 4:33PM
pandlcg said...
I'm just going to copy/paste what Gamepolitics said about it since i agree with them:
"Pachter, for whom we’ve got the utmost respect, is way off base with this one. For starters, delaying GTA IV for six months simply to tweak the 4th quarter numbers would alienate legions of anxious GTA fans and signal a very poor start to the relationship between EA and Rockstar’s edgy content.
And, frankly, EA gains an added benefit by letting GTA IV launch as planned. The company can dodge any negative political attention directed at GTA IV by simply pointing out that Take Two already had the game in the pipeline. "
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4-08-2008 @ 4:55PM
Halwende said...
I agree with post #6... but still...
*prods EA with a big stick*
Stay back! Back I say!
4-08-2008 @ 4:35PM
Brooks said...
While it's true that it would be more valuable for EA at the holidays, and if they had acquired Take Two six months ago a delay would have been likely, there is no possible way to delay the game at this point. Like Hunter2223 said, the discs are packaged and sitting in warehouses ready to ship.
There would be enormous expense in just sitting on them for seven months, review copies (which are already out) would appear on Ebay, and the whole launch would become anticlimactic and damage the GTA and EA brands.
Not gonna happen.
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4-08-2008 @ 4:45PM
RudyHuxtable said...
It's hard for me to believe the game is going to be more profitable in the 4th quarter. Almost anyone who plays games will preorder or buy GTA4 within the first few weeks/months, so causing a delay would likely just piss people off, not pump them up. I personally would lose a lot of respect for both businesses if they pull a stunt like this... not that EA had much of my respect to begin with.
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4-08-2008 @ 4:47PM
dylan said...
not going to happen, this would also jeopardize their relationship with all video game retailers who allow pre-orders, which even the largest video game company does not want on their hands. Plus they should want to get their game out before Saints Row 2, because if it turns out to anwhere near as good as Saints Row 1 it could take a chunk out of the GTA business by coming out first.
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4-08-2008 @ 4:48PM
Iliad Force said...
This is one of the biggest releases this generation of consoles has seen. Its success will not be hampered by being released well before the holiday buying season. And I presume the publishing process is already well underway. I wonder how much these analysts know about the industry they're analyzing...
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4-08-2008 @ 4:50PM
Josh said...
oh man. it's settled. fuck EA. guess who's not selling his shares to EA? THIS GUY!
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4-08-2008 @ 4:52PM
bloatedfish said...
Bonus round is filmed all at once and then split up into four parts and one part is released slowly after the other. So patcher may have said this in the latest bonus round but he actually said this nearly two months ago when this would be plausible. However if you were to ask him now i'm sure he would say this would no longer happen.
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