@lenzz: lol. gee, thanks for the reality check. the question, then, is why doesn't sony care about gta iv being purchased? are they snubbing rockstar? it seems recently that the relationship isn't as tight as it used to be.

thing is that if your statements are correct than microsoft isn't just paying for advertising. every store i went to before GTA came out was mainly pushing the 360 pre-orders. i guess microsoft really wants to make sure sony is no longer the company associated with this franchise. i guess that's the smart thing to do.

Now, this is just a theory. That's why my topic has a question mark in it. Personally I only recently began encountering the freezing issue and I have noticed one thing in common with the fixes I've been trying.

I don't have to delete game saves, I don't have to delete installation files, the only thing I have to do to get into GTA IV is sign out of my PSN account from my XMB. That's it. If I'm signed in when I start the game the game doesn't get past the load screens (my game save doesn't load). But, if I sign out before I start the game I get in every time. Then, as soon as I try to start Multiplayer and I sign in to PSN, as prompted by the game, my game immediately freezes as soon as I'm signed in and I try to access the Multiplayer menu (Games, Party Mode, Invites, Player Model, Tutorial).

There has to be something Rockstar and Sony can do about this. It's ridiculous. I don't mean to be a conspiracy theorist, but I can't help thinking that this is an ongoing symptom of the favorable treatment the 360 version is getting. All the ads I see, all the hype, it's all over the 360 version. Because of that, the PS3 version has not gotten the attention it needs to be properly functional in all aspects of game play.