Digital Trends
Grand Theft Auto IV has been roaring through Liberty City on the PS3 and Xbox 360 since April 29. But as of November 18, PC users will have a chance to try their skills, according to game developer Rockstar Games, just in time to reap big holiday sales.
And it promises something a little different for PC gamers, with an expanded multiplayer system, although it’s offered no details yet. It’s expected to give a big boost to the PC games market.
Thai video game distributor New Era Interactive Media has announced it is suspending sales of Take Two Interactive’s controversial Grand Theft Auto games after a teenager confessed to committing a robbery and murder in an attempt to recreate a scene from the game.
According to Reuters, the teenager said he wanted to see if it was as easy to rob a taxi in real life as it was in the game. Although the teenager said he did not intend to kill the driver, he was arrested trying to steer the cab backwards out of a street after stabbing the 54 year-old driver with a knife. The mortally-wounded driver was in the back seat; the suspect stabbed the driver when he fought back.
In a fresh rejection, Take-Two Interactive is urging its investors not buy into Electronics Arts’ $26-per-share offer to take over the game publishers…at least until after the hotly-anticipated Grand Theft Auto IV ships, or a better offer comes along.
“Our Board, after careful review, has unanimously determined that Electronic Arts’ offer continues to provide insufficient value and remains opportunistically timed to capture the value of the upcoming Grand Theft Auto IV launch at the expense of our stockholders,” said Take 2 CEO Strauss Zelnick, in a statement.
In the tradition of many highly anticipated games from respected publishers, Grand Theft Auto IV will be available in a special edition for those fans dedicated enough to cough up the coin for it. Rockstar, the game’s publisher, made the announcement Monday evening along with the price: a steep $89.99. That’s $30 more than the regular versions on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 will go for.
High-end boutique PC maker Velocity Micro has rolled out Vista-enabled version of its CineMagix Grand Theater and CineMagix Pro Cinema home theater PCs.
“We’re bringing to market something very special,” said Chris Morley, Velocity Micro’s Director of Product Development. “The audio/video quality is second to none in the consumer electronic market with Dolby Master Studio certification and a near perfect home theater benchmark score. We also took a radically different approach to the whole out-of-box experience—including the cables and documentation that consumers have come to expect from their home theater A/V equipment.”
Rockstar Games today released details about upcoming Grand Theft Auto games for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable. Grand Theft Auto IV for the Xbox 360 and PS3 is expected to be released Oct. 16 of next year, while Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories will debut on the PSP Oct. 17 of this year.
Grand Theft Auto IV, said Rockstar Games, will be brought to the Xbox 360 platform from day one of its global release
“We have worked very closely with Rockstar North to bring the same integrity and production value of the previous Grand Theft Auto titles to the PSP system,” said Gordon Hall, President of Rockstar Leeds. “People’s expectation for a Grand Theft Auto title will always be very high, and we’re confident that we can deliver a revolutionary experience. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories will be the most intense and epic title created for the PSP system, undoubtedly setting the standard for this groundbreaking platform.”
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas will be in stores in Europe on October 29th, 2004.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is the next installment in the gaming franchise that has sold over 32 million units to date, including over 13 million units of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and over 11 million units of Grand Theft Auto 3.
Additional information about Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is available at http://www.rockstargames.com/sanandreas.
Mark Gallagher, who applied for a job at the developer now known as Rockstar North in 1993, claims that an example of his own work was used as the eventual basis for Grand Theft Auto.
Gallagher claims to have developed a game called “Crime Inc.” over a period of two years before he applied for the job with DMA, which at the time was a respected Amiga and PC developer after the successful release of Lemmings in 1990. A demonstration version of the game, he says, which featured a similar criminal milieu, was part of the materials he submitted when applying for a position at DMA.
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