Take-Two: 'We Don't Want To Be Mistaken Twice'

In a call to investors explaining the just announced Grand Theft Auto IV delay, Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick stressed that a 6 month delay was sufficient and necessary, saying "having been mistaken once, we certainly don't want to be mistaken twice."

The call reiterated much of what Take-Two had expressed in its initial statement, which -- with GTA IV's delay and the beleaguered Manhunt 2 off its release schedule entirely pending ratings reviews -- calls for Q3 sales of $195 million to $205 million, Q4 sales of $275 million to $300 million, and full year sales of $950 million to $1.0 billion.

Executives Strauss Zelnick and Ben Feder again expressed their disappointment in the decision to delay, which was made yesterday after spending time with the most recent build of the title.

"As many of you know, development of a video game, is a complex and time intensive process," said Zelnick, adding that "given our commitment to set new stanrdard for 2 relatively new hardware platforms simultaneously," an October release, given the most recent build, "wasn't an acceptable path."

Zenick reiterated that Take-Two's relationship with Rockstar was "rock solid," and said that the decision was made with the developer working "very closely" with a high amount of cooperation, and that it "wasn't something that either took lightly."

He said that there would be no penalty to Rockstar, "nor should there be one. We all work together as a team, and we support our colleagues at Rockstar."

Take-Two was reticent to discuss any details of its talks with Microsoft or Sony, especially in light of the former's previously reported $50 million exclusive content deal, the first payment of which was expected to be made to Take-Two in March of 2008, which, at this point, could be before the release of the game entirely.

The executives would only add on the matter that "we're not going to send money back to Microsoft. That's not part of the deal."

Nor would the company comment on whether the problems Rockstar faced were particular to one platform, asked specifically if the studio was struggling with the PlayStation 3 version of the game.

After a pause, Zelnick would only say that "the technology that we're developing for GTA IV is pretty complex. It's a big game, with technological challenges across the board on both PS3 and 360."

"Our intention is to create a game that is the same experience on 360 and PS3. I know there have been rumors about framerate and some other issues. We don't think it's helpful or beneficial to go into exact details," but added that Rockstar was "pushing the envelope on both platforms," and that "consumers will ultimately benefit."

"The reason it is being delayed," said Zelnick, "is almost strictly technological problems... Not problems, but challenges." POSTED: 02.58PM PST, 08/02/07 - Brandon Boyer

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=14959

So both consoles, as well as the game, are to blame.

There everyone is unhappy.

why shouldtake-two talk with sony about the DLC content ?

Take-Two was reticent to discuss any details of its talks with Microsoft or Sony, especially in light of the former's previously reported $50 million exclusive content deal, the first payment of which was expected to be made to Take-Two in March of 2008, which, at this point, could be before the release of the game entirely.

suspicious.....

seeing how most multiplay games look better on 360, i'd say the real prob is the ps3. framerate is prob crapy. HeHateMe_basic

who said they dont have disk space isues or hdd

look buddy you can point you finger everywhere it wont bring gta4 back to september im sorry

and if you listend to the latest 1up podcast you would know that they had a hands-on onthe xbox360 version and it had lag issues...

why shouldtake-two talk with sony about the DLC content ?

Take-Two was reticent to discuss any details of its talks with Microsoft or Sony, especially in light of the former's previously reported $50 million exclusive content deal, the first payment of which was expected to be made to Take-Two in March of 2008, which, at this point, could be before the release of the game entirely.

suspicious.....

legalize3

6 months? :cry:BioShockOwnz

I know!

It's not like an October to November delay. It's a massive delay. How could they announce an October release!

[QUOTE="HeHateMe_basic"]seeing how most multiplay games look better on 360, i'd say the real prob is the ps3. framerate is prob crapy. legalize3

who said they dont have disk space isues or hdd

look buddy you can point you finger everywhere it wont bring gta4 back to september im sorry

True but he can try for october

6 months? :cry:BioShockOwnz

:cry:

[QUOTE="BioShockOwnz"]6 months? :cry:the-very-best

I know!

It's not like an October to November delay. It's a massive delay. How could they announce an October release!

Rockstar is usually really good with keeping release dates unknown until they know they can deliver by that date. This was my most anticipated title this year. Yes, even more than BioShock. :( Why in the world would they not say anything at E3 about it, then a few weeks later they delay it. :(

Rockstar is usually really good with keeping release dates unknown until they know they can deliver by that date. This was my most anticipated title this year. Yes, even more than BioShock. :( Why in the world would they not say anything at E3 about it, then a few weeks later they delay it. :(

BioShockOwnz

I know! That's what frustrates me most. If they didn't announce a release date I wouldn't have been annoyed but they did say October. I thought it they delayed it it'd be a month delay, not a whole freaking 6 months.

Anyway, now I have MGSIV/GTAIV at the same time which sucks cause I'd like to thoroughly play through my most anticipated titles. Plus, this also delays me getting a PS3 (I suppose that's a good thing though, price might drop).

Yeah, 6 months is an enormous delay. There must have been some serious problems. This isn't a delay to fix the online leaderboards. I know a lot of previews mentioned framerate issues and such, but I think it was a lot worse what we thought at first. I remember one fairly recent IGN preview of GTA4 that was very telling, as they wondered how the game could be released in its state by October, and I remember thinking "hmmm, I wonder what'll happen." And I just went and looked it up, and there are actually a couple of these comments from two different articles:

"There are still truckloads of bugs to be worked out - the framerate is a little worrying, as is the pop-up. With just a few months of development time left, we're hoping what we were shown was just an early build; otherwise, Rockstar still has a lot of work to do in order to make the October release date."IGN

"Visually, GTA IV's a shocker at the moment - sluggish, spasmodic frame rates, horrendous pop-up and bland interiors all brought back uncomfortable memories of Rockstar's previous insistence on pushing its PS2 engine much harder than it should feasibly be pushed. That said, when stationary, the game looks absolutely beautiful, with massive amounts of detail, impeccable modeling and some simply gorgeous lighting effects and texturing - all amounting to degrees of life we've yet seen in a videogame. Admittedly though, any technical complaints are pretty mute at this point in development - the demo build we saw is weeks old by now and Rockstar is adamant that engine wrinkles will be completely ironed out come release."IGN

I like that last sentence. Rockstar technically told the truth. :lol:

guys you want this game to work on your console? without blowing the consoles up and freezing i think they dealy is neccersary to fix the "software etc....."