GTA IV has a release date. Gamers are rejoicing. Anti-gaming folks are marking their calendars. I’m actually not sure about that last statement, but it isn’t hard to imagine. Anyway, for those of you who are wondering what caused the delays in the first place, well, here’s the reason:
“GTA” games haven’t missed their announced release dates before. When the delay was announced in August, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick told investors that “the reason it is being delayed is almost strictly technological problems — not problems, but challenges.” Barrera offered a little more detail to MTV News this week: “It’s really no surprise to anybody that the PS3 was definitely a contributing factor to that. Now, we’re neck and neck. That’s not an issue anymore. But back then that was something we were taking into account. That’s not to say there’s anything wrong with the PS3 version. It’s awesome. They’re both identical.”
The original release date was October 2007, which means “contributing factor” = 6-month delay. You can also think that since the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions are now “neck and neck”, it implies two things: first, that it was the PS3 version that needed to catch up, causing a 3-month delay and second, that both versions are currently being developed simultaneously.
So does that mean that the PS3’s harder to work with? It sounds like it. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of something like that.
Read: MTV