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Grand Theft Auto IV Unveiled On 360

Posted by Zonk on Tue May 09, 2006 03:03 PM
from the didn't-expect-that dept.
E3 Microsoft XBox (Games)
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.
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Offsite: Eurogamer Coverage
[+] Exclusive GTA IV Content for PS3 Too 52 comments
One of Microsoft's happy announcements at this year's E3 was exclusive content for Grand Theft Auto IV on the Xbox 360. Eurogamer is now reporting that the PS3 will get its own exclusive content for Rockstar's next chapter in the GTA series. From the article: "How many additional areas or episodes Rockstar is planning is anyone's guess at this juncture, but it seems the game is at least being structured to accommodate a number of expansive new content releases in the weeks and months after release, while also satisfying platform holder - and console owner - demand for exclusive material. Though with 'exclusive' being a somewhat elastic term these days, especially where Grand Theft Auto is concerned, we wouldn't be remotely surprised if you end up playing 'exclusive' 360 episodes on your PS3, and vice versa. One thing's for sure - there's nothing more certain to piss off the fanboys than a level playing field. "
[+] Microsoft Shells Out $50 Million For GTA IV Content 189 comments
Ars Technica is reporting on the highly-anticipated downloadable content for GTA IV mentioned by Microsoft at last year's E3. It appears that, first off, that content is only coming to the Xbox 360. Secondly, Microsoft paid some $50 Million for the privilege. This is from a financials conference call held by Take Two, and a question about a deferred payment from Microsoft reveals the general release schedule for the content. "The first 25 [million] is for the first episodic content package that's supposed to go out and that is in March of '08. That's why it moved into current because it's in the next 12 months. The second 25 [million] will be for the second episodic, the episode, and that will be later in fiscal '08."
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  • Gamespot says no. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by 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 o

    • Where was anything bad said about Sony?

      Just curious.
          • Why was the Nintendo 64 shipping without a disc drive "the biggest mistake in video game business history?"

            Because the market was demanding more storage capacity than ROMs could offer (16-32MB early in the N64's lifetime, 64MB later). Nintendo lost Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest to PlayStation because of this.

            What are the advantages of CD/DVD again?

            10x the capacity of the largest N64 cards ever manufacturered. CD soundtracks, pre-rendered video, streamed textures - you name it.

            At least in those days when
    • Are you really expecting Moore to have a clue. He's probably still convinced that there is no PS3 and the 360 is competing with the PS2. No GTAIV on PS2 = XBOX 360 exclusive.
    • Yeah, sounds like the core game is for both but..

      "Microsoft and Rockstar have entered into an exclusive deal to privide episodic content via Xbox Live Marketplace."

      so additional content will be only available on the 360 if I understand this correctly.

      • Re:Gamespot says no. (Score:3, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward
        "The Basic PS3 is crippled."

        Hardly the Base PS3 has pretty much the same feature set as the top of the line 360. Does the 360 have an external HDMI port? Nope. Both machines can do HDMI with a break out cable via their multi-out connectors. The base PS3 is lacking the ability to do dual HDTV, but is that really an issue for most people, I doubt it.

        Let us see what else the base PS3 is lacking.
        -WiFi built in, you can add that the same way you can add WiFi to the 360.

        -The card reader, humm the 360 doesn't have
      • 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, adv

        • 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.

          I'm not too concerned about the memory card or WiFi, since those are all things I imagine can be easily added. It's the HDMI output that's a bit odd. Yeah, there's USB support, so is that how it's going to be done?

          I do
          • Anyway, back to the HDMI output, I thought HD-DVD and Blu-ray had to have either DVI or HDMI output? Does that mean the core PS3 won't be able to play Blu-ray discs unless you upgrade? Sounds a lot like the Xbox DVD fiasco, where you had to buy the dongle/remote to enable playing DVDs, whereas it worked right out of the box for the PS2.

            Not even DVI, just HDMI. Technically, you are correct. This is the deal: currently the hardware manufacturers are agreeing in principle to only send the highest-resolution

      • Uh, ok...

        Let's compare features of the high-end packages:

        HDMI support
        PS3 - included
        Xbox360 - N/A

        802.11
        PS3 - included
        Xbox360 - Add-on available for $100

        60gb HD
        PS3 - included
        Xbox360 - N/A, only 20GB HD available

        Motion-sensitive controllers
        PS3 - included
        Xbox360 - N/A

        Blu-ray
        PS3 - included
        Xbox360 - N/A, HD-DVD available (someday) for additional cost

        etc... Hell, the Wii is going to include motion-sensitve controllers and wifi. I'd rather drop $600 up front to have those features included, instead of $400 then pi
        • 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"
      • 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

        • a) xbox 360 has HDMI cables [shopping.com]

          b)Depends on the publisher. Sony movies says for their initial blu-ray movie release they'll turn off the secured output requirement. Other publishers may not be as nice. Also all upscaling dvd players require HDCP out.

          c) All depends if ps3 has unified video/sound port like the 360. My guess they'll probably have one but you never know its sony were talking about. They've been acting pretty irrational lately.

          Any way I could careless what sony does, i'm getting a wii in nove

  • WRONG... episodic releases are exclusive (Score:5, Informative)

    by dividedsky319 (907852) on Tuesday May 09 2006, @03:07PM (#15296168) Homepage
    The game will be released for both the PS3 and the Xbox 360 on October 16th, 2007.

    The Xbox version will have "episodic releases" via Xbox Live.

    • Re:WRONG... episodic releases are exclusive (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      correct-o-mundo, i crapped when, as a GTA fan, i read it was exclusive to MS in the summary while the story advises it is episodic content is the exlcusive bit.....seeing as how that MS live thing already puts 1 - 5 buck dents in the wallets of gamers for crap like "new horse armour" in Oblivion or a new house, i'm picturing the same for GTA - go to a new bar for only $4.99.

      AND, due to the PS3 not having the same extra content I feel relatively safe in assuming this won't affect the rest of the game, it wil
    • The Xbox version will have "episodic releases" via Xbox Live.

      Oh goodie. I'm glad companies are finally listening to me, the consumer. I'm sick of buying a game and then having it. I'd much rather be nickle-and-dimed for additional content as it's made available to me at their discretion.

  • GTA on 360 and PS3 (Score:5, Interesting)

    by CaymanIslandCarpedie (868408) on Tuesday May 09 2006, @03:09PM (#15296191) Journal
    Sounds like the new GTA will actually be for both the 360 and PS3, but extra GTA episodes will be availiable exclusivly through XBox Live. So the original game will be for both but there will be extra content exclusive to the 360. Stay tuned for more details folks, but the MS conferance.... well all I can say is .... WOW!

  • The other news... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Robotron23 (832528) on Tuesday May 09 2006, @03:14PM (#15296244)
    Bill Gates' entrance!

    "What is that in Bill's hands? He's holding a tiny white object and can't stop fiddling with it."

    Finally! News that Bill truly is one of us - except hes probably more compulsive about the whole thing. :-D
    • "What is that in Bill's hands? He's holding a tiny white object and can't stop fiddling with it."

      There's a reason he named his company micro soft...

  • From the Article (Score:3, Funny)

    by Orrin Bloquy (898571) on Tuesday May 09 2006, @03:16PM (#15296263) Journal
    "While the game will be available for both the PS3 and 360, only XBox Live will have access to the 'Throwing Chairs Monkeyboy' mod. Rockstar CTO Paul Walker was quick to go on record that the game will *not* become a single-platformer: 'We would never marginalize our most successful demographic, overweight white suburban kids who wish they were dangerous Negroes.'"

  • Unified Live!! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Vesuvias (584893) on Tuesday May 09 2006, @03:17PM (#15296278)
    This is actually pretty cool. It means that the acheivements and gamerscore are coming to Vista. Xbox live support for multiplayer (good bye gamespy) and its cross platform. I know PC gamers will dispise the concept of playing with console kiddies but given the chance I think this will be huge. Friends lists, video and voice chat, gamerscore, acheivements this is all big and welcome news for Vista. The additional connectivity to the windows community will only help the 360. Leave it to microsoft to once agian figure out how to leverage its OS monopoly to help in other markets.

    Ves
    • acheivements and gamerscore are coming to Vista.

      I can picture it now:
      Microsoft Office Vista:
      * Formated a document using Bold [10 Points]
      * Narrowed the margins to make your report seem longer then it is [50 Points]
      * Printed more then 10 copies of a document [25 Points]
      * Saved the same document more then 20 times [10 Points]
      * Created a new document [5 Points]
      * Created 100 new documents [100 Points]

      Oh boy! I sure know I can't wait!

  • Most likely (Score:5, Interesting)

    by The_Shadows (255371) <thelureofshadowsNO@SPAMhotmail.com> on Tuesday May 09 2006, @03:36PM (#15296464) Homepage
    As others have commented, it will be released for both PS3 and 360 at the same time.

    What no one is mentioning is the PC release. Rockstar tends to wait for a few months after console release before releasing the PC version. They're not being jerks. They're retooling it for the purpose of bringing it over to PC. That's why the GTA series hasn't suffered from consolitis, by and large. I'll be looking forward to GTA IV on the PC, even if I have to wait half a year.

  • They can stick their 'episodic content' up their.. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ivan256 (17499) * on Tuesday May 09 2006, @03:41PM (#15296504)
    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.
      • If you remember, the uproar over the horse armor pack led them to offer the next content at a much better price.

        No it didn't. It prompted them to offer the later content at a slightly reduced price. ($0.10 less? Give me a break.) I have the game. I love the game. I have the Orrery add-on... If taken as a fraction of a $35 expansion pack, there is about $0.25 worth of content in it.

        I'd buy the "expensive to create next-gen content" argument if the game weren't 10% content and 90% cut and paste copies of that
  • 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.

  • Wow (Score:3, Insightful)

    by sehryan (412731) on Tuesday May 09 2006, @04:43PM (#15296944)
    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:GTAIV this holiday. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Zed2K (313037) on Tuesday May 09 2006, @03:13PM (#15296236)
      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.
    • October, 2007 is not this holiday, AFAIK

    • Re:What kind of 'exclusive'? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Alban (86010) on Tuesday May 09 2006, @03:19PM (#15296292)
      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.
    • Yeah, seems to be a misunderstanding. GTA4 will be released to both platforms, but RockStar and MS have an exclusive agreement where additional espisodes will be released exclusivly via Xbox Live if I understood the conferences correctly.
      • Well, a keyboard and mouse don't really compare to a good gamepad device, though the opposite can also often be true (I'll forever be a fan of mouse-aiming vs with joystick). Flight games and many others are quite centric to the input device, but then a decent PC joystick or gamepad will make a big difference as well (I have one that was all of $15 and is quite similar to a Playstation 2 gamepad, works great). Of course, if you can't find a PC gamepad that suits you, one could always get the playstation-USB
      • I can't remember where it came out first, but GTA III was great on the PC. The "save point" thing was the only console-based annoyance, but the graphics were great, and the game was fantastic.
    • X-Box 360:

      DOA4 is here
      DOAX2 is coming
      HALO 3 is coming
      GTA 4 is coming
      Madden for the 360 sucks.

      It's finally reaching a point that I might think it's worth getting one.

      PS3:

      Nothing is here.
      The console itself if coming... eventually.
      Madden for the 360 sucks.

      Wii:
      Nothing is here.
      The console is coming, but won't take advantage of my HDTV anyway.
      Madden for the 360 sucks.

      Amid the 360 hype (from haters and fanboys alike), I've mostly been sitting on the side-lines to see what Sony and Nintendo would be offering before
      • Read the actual news and you'll see that the PS3 will also have GTA4. Microsoft was able to get exclusive downloadable content, not exclusive rights to the game.
      • Oh c'mon. If you want to buy a 360 now, more power to you - but surely we should wait for all the boxes to come out before we pass judgement as to the best console?

        (and yes, the GP was a joke).

        • Re:You know what that means? (Score:4, Interesting)

          by Golias (176380) on Tuesday May 09 2006, @03:37PM (#15296465)
          The expectation of GTA lock-out was the one barrier which has kept me from seriously considering the 360.

          The X-Box exclusive DOA series is *almost* enough on its own to make me want a 360, and hopes for more HALO games also has me rather jazzed over it. My "wait and see" attitude has mostly been based on a fondness for GTA:III & GTA:VC, which were exclusive to the PS2 for about a year.

          If Sony does not have the GTA series locked up in their stable, what is there left to wait and see? BluRay? The Wii controller?
    • re: who cares" guys who are driving lousy cars and getting no pussy - which is just about 90% of Slashdot readers. That's a MARKET BABY!

    • Re:fuck you Zonk (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 09 2006, @03:27PM (#15296380)
      if anyone wonders, here the original Summary:
      Grand Theft Auto IV Unveiled As 360 Exclusive
      Posted by Zonk on Tuesday May 09, @04:03PM
      from the didn't-expect-that dept.
      E3 Microsoft XBox (Games)
      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 an Xbox 360 exclusive.
    • OK I really thought I was over the whole Halo thing and was MUCH more looking forward to info about Too Human, but DAMN! For a teaser trailer all real-time generated in the actual game, that was pretty cool! OK so maybe I am still a Halo junkie and have just been in denial 'cause I REALLY cannot wait for that game!

    • Re:Live Anywhere & Cost? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by RexRhino (769423) on Tuesday May 09 2006, @04:58PM (#15297055)
      but why would PC gamers pay to play on Live when they can play on free servers elsewhere?

      Nearly every single Live Player has a voice communication mike. You don't have to deal with cheaters on live (I have never encountered a cheater on live, and I am not aware of any cheating software - the only kind of cheating I am aware of is sometimes player intentionaly lower their bandwidth to cause themselves to lag... but there is no software they lets people see through walls or aimbots or whatever like on the PC)... every player has an ID tied to their credit card, so people are less likely to engage in racist/stupid behavior, and when they do I can permanently ban them from my games. I can maintain an integrated list of all the players I like, send them an invitation to play directly from the game, I can see what games they are playing directly from the game.

      It is definitly worth the $60 a year for the service they offer.

    • Re:Why the uproar? (Score:4, Informative)

      by The-Bus (138060) on Tuesday May 09 2006, @05:47PM (#15297364) Homepage
      Rockstar has said that the current GTA Series are all part of the "GTA3" universe. That is, Grand Theft Auto: 3, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Grand Theft Auto: Electric Boogaloo are all "GTA3" in a sense. Rockstar has said that after San Andreas they want to take a long hard look at the series, and retool it so that GTA4 is going to be a leap like the one you saw from the second to the third.

      I don't know if this is still the case but I remember them making a big deal about it between the release of Vice City and San Andreas.

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