Grand Theft Auto IV Unveiled On 360

Despite expectations that this would be the least eventful of the E3 pre-conferences, Microsoft's Peter Moore drops the news that Grand Theft Auto IV will be on Xbox 360. Rockstar and Microsoft have teamed up to do exclusive episodic content in the GTA gameworld for the 360. Slated to release October 16, 2007 in North America, October 19 in Europe. Other details include lots of support for Live Arcade titles (Sonic, Galaga, Street Fighter II), the official unveiling of Shadowrun for the 360 and PC, the airing of the Halo 3 Teaser Trailer (which is already on Xbox Live), and much discussion of 'Live Anywhere'. This last is an expansion of Xbox Live to PC and cell platforms in addition to the Xbox arena.

Gamespot says no.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmm.

XBox 360 with 20GB hard drive ($400) + HD-DVD drive addon ($100?) + 1 year XBox Live ($50) = $550.

Playstation 3 with 20GB hard drive ($500) + Bluray drive (included) + 5 years online (included) = $500.

Sony are the arrogant ones here, though, right? OK, just checking. I'm finding it increasingly hard to keep track.

By the way, Zonk, GTA4 isn't an XBox exclusive. [gamespot.com]

12:54: I get the official Rockstar Games announcement of Grand Theft Auto IV in my e-mail--it says that the game will be release simultaneously on Xbox 360 and PS3. Moore said it was coming to 360 first. What the...?

Re:Gamespot says no.

[Anonymous Coward]

No one is going to buy the $500, stripped down, 360 core model-ish version of the PS3.

Or at least, no one in their right mind.

Re:GTAIV this holiday.

[Zed2K]

Uhhh...no. October of 2007...thats 2007 not 2006

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/060509/20060509006185.html ?.v=1 [yahoo.com]

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 9, 2006--Rockstar Games, the universally-renowned publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO - News), is proud to announce Grand Theft Auto IV, the next-generation console debut of the genre-defining Grand Theft Auto franchise. Developed by world-class designers Rockstar North, Grand Theft Auto IV will be simultaneously available for the PlayStation®3 and Xbox 360(TM) and is currently planned to be in stores in North America on October 16, 2007 and in Europe on October 19, 2007.

Re:What kind of 'exclusive'?

[Alban]

Even if the game is only exclusive on 360 for a few months and then comes out on other platforms (as is currently the case with ps2 GTA), the majority of the sales happen during the exclusivity period. After that, the hype pretty much dies. I was amazed to see how low the sales numbers were for the GTA games on xbox.

So, whatever is the case with this GTA exclusivity for 360, it's a huge blow against sony. In north america at least.

They can stick their 'episodic content' up their..

[ivan256]

Episodic content is just a way for them to raise the price of the game without raising the price on the pricetag in the stores.

I'm sick of this crap where game companies think they can get $1.00 out of us for what would have been $0.10 of content had it been in an expansion pack, or included in the game to begin with. I'm also pissed at all the stupid moron gamers that buy this crap that 'costs less than a cup of coffee' because they don't understand that they're paying way more money in the long run; thus letting the micropayment mind-games continue.

I wish one of the next-gen consoles didn't have an online component, so they wouldn't be able to pull this crap. I'd buy that console instead of the other ones.

Why did you change the title and text?

[maynard]

Changing material after the fact destroys any context for comments written to rebut the claims published on slashdot. May I suggest a retraction next time? It's the honest thing to do.

making shit up?

[Ender Ryan]

How do you know the PS3 cannot be upgraded? It still has Bluetooth and USB support, I'm pretty sure it can handle peripherals. It also has very flexible AV In/Out support. Whether memory card and wifi peripherals, and HDMI output can be added is not something I'd be speculating about just yet.

And your comments about CPU utilization are wrong. The multiple cores on the 360 don't do much without being programmed for. IIRC, Microsoft has said that none of the current crop of games take much, if any, advantage of the extra cores.

Re:Gamespot says no.

[thatguywhoiam]

The Basic PS3 is crippled, it has almost no peripheral support, not even memory stick. And these items CANNOT be upgrade or added on later, so you HAVE TO BUY the upper end PS3 to get the full use of it and things like HDMI.

Untrue. The PSP didn't ship with a camera or a GPS, and yet, here they come. I direct your attention to the USB ports - they work pretty much like the ones on your PC. Unless of course, Sony has suddenly decided that it doesn't like to make add-on peripherals for their toys, like they have forever.

WiFi can be added, cardreaders can be added, HD is removable. HDMI can NOT be added, but you don't get HDMI at all with X360/Wii so I consider that moot.

So which company is actually trying to make the unit affordable and yet not lock the user into a model they have to trade in or pitch when they decide they want the upper end unit?

Answer is all three. MS wants you to buy crap on Live, Sony wants you to buy crap on whatever their Live is as well as more hardware (PSP connectivity), Nintendo wants you to buy add-on parts for the Wii remote and old skool games online. Don't be naive.

Sony has so lost their minds, and not only with the PS3. The whole Blu-Ray catastrophy,

Stop right there. The BluRay camp has 4 of the 5 big studios on board, and Sony is about to flood the market by trojaning BluRay into what will certainly be (at least initially) a big console release - and they will do it for less than the $1k that either a HD-DVD or BluRay standalone player goes for today. There is no catastrophe other than your fricking ignorant post.

As for games, they can't even hold developers to the PS3 platform because of the lack of developer support and CRAP development tools for it.

Really. Cite something.

In comparison to XBox360, developers can use OpenGL and DirectX (XNA) technologies and still get the most out of the multiprocessor system without being specialists in multi-cpu game design. Let alone the fact that one development process can produce a PC and XBox title without having to port the title or develop textures and meshes at lower levels between the platforms to get the games to work.

Ahhh, now I see where you are coming from. Please elucidate for us why this advantage does not translate to the Wii and PS3 as well, since they also employ OpenGL?

You can have your PS3, just make sure you buy the more expensive one, so you don't have to chuck the 'basic' model later on when you find you want to watch HD movies...

I will have to chuck my X360 if I want to watch HD movies since it has no HDMI port.

Re:I'm confused

[Anonymous Coward]

Where was anything bad said about Sony?

Oh, I am sorry. I was not trying to imply Microsoft had said anything bad about Sony, if that is what you are asking.

I just found Microsoft's HD-DVD announcement today quite amusing, given the uproar yesterday. Sony charges $500-600 for their console, and everyone (rightly) interprets this as an act of supreme arrogance, just plain assuming that they can charge anything they want and people will buy it anyway. But Microsoft meanwhile seems to have just packed the XBox 360 with hidden costs to the point where it's if anything costlier than the PS3, and nobody seems to even noticed. Yeah, okay, technically Microsoft's wider options mean you can get the XBox 360 experience for "only" $300 if you really want it-- but not if you want to be able to save your game.

To directly answer your question though: if you want to know where something bad was said about Sony, look at absolutely any response anywhere to Sony's press conference yesterday, when Sony announced the price of the PS3 and the price was the biggest mistake in video game business history since the Nintendo 64 shipped without a disc drive. Most of these responses to yesterday's press conference, especially the ones from Slashdot and Microsoft (though MS's response was yesterday, not during today's press conference) were quite nasty.

Re:Gamespot says no.

[joshsisk]

XBox 360 with 20GB hard drive ($400) + HD-DVD drive addon ($100?) + 1 year XBox Live ($50) = $550.

Playstation 3 with 20GB hard drive ($500) + Bluray drive (included) + 5 years online many (included) = $500.

Your numbers are a bit flawed, since the $500 PS3 doesn't have HDMI, which some people require to watch HD content on their TVs, also some Blu-Ray discs are planned to be released as only playable via HDMI (to prevent copying or some such nonsense), so the non-HDMI PS3 can't really be considered a full-featured movie player like the $600 one.

Not adding HDMI on both seems like a bad move, unless they also offer an accessory that can let people get the HDMI later... I would be pissed if I decided to upgrade to HD and realized my PS3 didn't have the right connectors.

Also, if one ignores the movie playing aspect (whch will be much less a big deal this time, since the difference between VHS and DVD was much greater than the difference between DVD and HD/Blu Ray), there is still that $100 price difference, which may well widen by the time of the PS3 launch or, perhaps more likely, soon after. I could see MS leaving the current price til after Christmas, then dropping the price in January. A $350 Core Xbox vs a $500 Core PS3? That's a much bigger gap, and the PS3 can't really drop it's price so soon after release.

Re:Most likely

[shutdown -p now]

Uhh... if anything, GTA3+ was a prominent example of "consolitis". Controls, graphics, and gamplay in general...

/me remembers savegames and shudders.

Re:WRONG... episodic releases are exclusive

[Blakey Rat]

Why don't you just not buy it if you don't like it instead of whining about it on Slashdot? And guess what, if a lot of people agree with you and also don't buy it, then it won't be successful and publishers will go back to the old model! Amazing!

Wow

[sehryan]

Wow...GTA on the 360...IN 17 MONTHS!!! Why is this exciting news exactly? I am sure there are a lot of great games coming out on all the consoles in late 2007. The reason we haven't heard about them - because they are saving them for E3 2007.

What is MS going to talk about at next year's E3, Halo 8, arriving at your local game store October 7, 2059.

Re:Gamespot says no.

[MHolmesIV]

You forgot:

Rumble controllers:
PS3: N/A
XBox 360: Included

Being able to play a game for less than $500
PS3: N/A
XBox 360: Included

XNA Framework:
PS3: N/A
XBox 360: Included

You can say anything you want by carefully tailoring what you claim to be "Features"

Re:What's with this episodic stuff?

[Hootenanny]

The reason episodic content is attractive, from the perspective of a game developer, derives from both increased revenue and decreased costs. The increased revenue is what you term the "money milking" argument - it is true that gamers who like a certain franchise will be willing to spend $10 a pop on 6-8 hour episodes, and they might end up spending $100 over a year or so on episodes for a favorite game. The cost of producing a short episode is relatively small, compared to the cost of producing an entire game. Not to mention consumer expectations - when gamers buy a new game, they expect something innovative. When they buy a new episode, they expect a new twist on the same old thing. Again, it's easier for gaming companies to do it this way.

Soylent Green is people!

[Anonymous Coward]

I have no clue what the guy who modded you up was smoking, but that's the most retarded troll I've ever seen. People have every right to complain about it AND not buy it. If people don't buy the extra content it doesn't show up in their statistics other than as someone who didn't buy it. If people however complain loudly in various forums and get others informed so they in turn complain loudly, it shows up in a completely different way.

Thus I'm proud to say: This "extra content" has convinced me not to buy either an Xbox360 or a PS3, I'll just go with the Nintendo Wii now. I've been a Sony fanboi since PSX was released, and I bought an Xbox for excellent games like Halo, Fable and Jade Empire. However, as of their new "feature enhancements" to the next generation, I'm switching camps. There's more innovation in Shigeru Miyamoto's left testicle than in all parts of of Sony and Microsoft combined.

See? It's my right as a consumer to express my dissatisfaction, the more vehemently the better, just as it's your right to be a dick on /.

Re:Gamespot says no.

[Twisted64]

That's the cost of a high-end PS3 and you still don't have all the features it includes.

Where is this high-end PS3? I think you mean ...will include.

Missing the point as always

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not about how much hardware you get per dollar. Speed/capability per dollar, PS3/360/Wii are all about the same because that's the reality of components and manufacturing.

The point is, most of us don't have 1080p TV's with a massive sound system. Most of us don't have a need to watch bluray/HD-DVD movies, and won't want it until netflix start distributing it. And even then, we need 1080p to enjoy it.

I don't want to spend an extra $200/$250 for hardware I don't need or want. I want to play games. Nintendo and, to a lesser degree, Microsoft get this.

MS will be the real winner here. They get to keep the bad-ass hardware image with a close-to-Wii price. That's going to sell huge, especially with 720p sets hitting the sweet spot price point in the next 3-5 years. Look for a $50 price cut in November followed by some high quality 2nd gen games to compete with Wii and gut PS3.