Release Dates
US: April 29, 2008
Europe: April 29, 2008
Japan: April 29, 2008
Australia: April 29, 2008
There’s so much buzz going around that it’s buzzonkers. Announced a long time ago in a galaxy…(uh, yeah) - this one’s prolly gonna crush Halo 3’s records, which was $300 million and 5 million units in the FIRST week.
“I’m not a player, I just crush a lot” – rapper, Big Pun. Fitting, given the expectations.
Expectations - $400 million in the first week.
Unlike Halo 3, which was released on Xbox360 only, GTA is being released on multiple platforms, thereby expanding the potential overall sales. Since EA is making a move to grab Take-Two, the maker of GTA under TTWO’s Rock-Star brand, there’s some need for TTWO to show such strong sales to entice EA to increase it’s offer or downright encourage stockholders to reject the tender offer (FTC also is a little skeptical).
Here’s an excerpt of the interview that IGN.com had with Rockstar’s VP of Creative, Dan Houser, and Rockstar North Art Director Aaron Garbut. The interview is excellent, check out the rest here.
IGN: Do you think the heightened realism is going to make the anti-GTA politicians even more vocal?
Garbut: I think regardless of how the game looked or what it contained the politicians [would] be just as vocal. GTA is an easy target for politicians and journalists to pick on. It doesn’t really matter what we do or don’t do. It’s an open experience that allows players to do as they choose in a realistic environment. As these sorts of games become more and more sophisticated and the choices and abilities open to the players increases it will become easier and easier to sensationalize a particular aspect of it and at the same time become more and more ridiculous [about it].We’re seeing it already with the drinking in the game. There is no drunk driving minigame, there’s just drinking and getting drunk. Combine this with the ability to enter cars in the game and people are able to drive drunk, but that’s a choice they have made based on the abilities we have made available to them. It’s just as valid for them to walk home, but that doesn’t make for such interesting headlines.I seem to be ranting but my point is we don’t allow what…a politician might think to be an issue. We just make a game that is as good as we can make and as beautiful as we can make. I really loathe the idea of self censorship.
What’s fascinating is that I’ve had former 40+ year old co-workers talk about how they were playing GTA for hours after putting the kids to bed and picking fights with local gangs…and what it felt like being marked (one guy is from North Jersey, so that that into account J). But it speaks to the wide following GTA has with hard core gamers and passive folk.
IGN also did a good history expose too – pretty cool.
EA is yet another company who continued to get spurned by a smaller, high-profile company. The other, of course, being Microsoft.
