Jump to content

Fears of plot leaks as GTA IV is shipped to retailers


Recommended Posts

Fears have grown that copies of Grand Theft Auto IV might be mistakenly sold ahead of its official release date, after its publishers announced that the game was being delivered to retailers.

Details of the game, which gets its global launch on April 29, have been kept a closely guarded secret by its maker, Rockstar Games. However, many fans fear that shops may unwittingly sell the game to customers early, and that information about the plot and the ending will be leaked on the internet.

"The game is in production and in trucks en route to retailers," Ben Feder, chief executive officer of Take Two, Rockstar's parent company, told shareholders at the company's annual meeting.

Such is the secrecy surrounding the highly anticipated game that only a handful of journalists have had the chance to play it, and most were only shown snippets rather than entire missions and levels.

Industry analysts expect fans to buy about six million copies of the game in the first week of sale alone, raking in around $400 million (£200 million) for Rockstar Games.

If so, it will smash the previous entertainment record, set last year by another video game, Halo 3, which sold five million copies in its first week when it was launched in September. Grand Theft Auto IV will be available on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Halo 3 was exclusive to the Xbox 360 platform.

Fans are certainly entitled to worry about details of the game being leaked ahead of its release. Last year Argos sold copies of Halo 3 before it was officially released, blaming a "genuine administrative error" for the mistake.

Rockstar Games will hope that by imposing a global release date for Grand Theft Auto IV, it will avoid some of the issues that surrounded the Halo 3 launch. On that occasion, the game went on sale in the US and Australasia a full 24 hours before it was released in Europe, and lead to clips of the game and the ending being posted on the YouTube video-sharing site.

Grand Theft Auto IV, the latest instalment in the hugely successful, critically acclaimed and long-running franchise, follows the fortunes of Eastern European immigrant Niko as he turns to a life of crime in the US.

Take Two, the parent company of Rockstar Games, is currently locked in a takeover battle with another high profile video game publisher, Electronic Arts. On Friday, EA dropped its bid for the company from $26 per share to $25.74, and extended the deadline for the offer until May 16.

"EA continues to believe that the offer price is full and fair, and that a transaction between Take-Two and EA is the most compelling combination financially, strategically and operationally for all parties," said the company in a statement.

EA originally announced its acquisition plans in March, but Take Two branded the offer "inadequate" and rejected it a week and a half later. The bid then turned hostile as Electronic Arts directly approached Take Two's shareholders. It succeeded in securing about eight per cent of Take Two's shares, but needs to push that up to 50 per cent for its takeover offer to succeed.

Meanwhile, in the United States, a convicted criminal, Jonathan Lee Riches, has launched legal action against Take Two and Rockstar Games, blaming the "sex, drugs and violence" featured in their games for contributing towards his committing identity theft. Riches, currently in prison in South Carolina, also called for the companies to cease distribution of the "newest Grand Theft Auto games".

Riches is a serial litigator - in the past he has filed legal actions against Martha Stewart, Tiger Woods, gossip blogger Perez Hilton and President Bush, among others. According to Fox News, he has also accused Britney Spears of holding him at gunpoint, and alleged that Apple's chief executive, Steve Jobs, employs OJ Simpson as a hitman.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

:rofl: at the last paragraph. I hope EA fuck off for once and just let Rockstar, T2 and the fans enjoy GTA. We know they'll just force T2 to release sequel after sequel if they get acquired by them.

Anyway, this doesn't really scare me. TGTAP is the only place I go to for info and I'm pretty sure Chris would put any spoilers at the bottom or give us a clear warning :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Someone would have to work damned fast to complete the storyline & collect all of the neccessary information & get it online within 24hrs. The simple fact however, is that if you are really worried about spoilers, simply stay off the internet, or at the very least don't click on any links titled "GTA IV Ending".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fears have grown that copies of Grand Theft Auto IV might be mistakenly sold ahead of its official release date, after its publishers announced that the game was being delivered to retailers.

Details of the game, which gets its global launch on April 29, have been kept a closely guarded secret by its maker, Rockstar Games. However, many fans fear that shops may unwittingly sell the game to customers early, and that information about the plot and the ending will be leaked on the internet.

"The game is in production and in trucks en route to retailers," Ben Feder, chief executive officer of Take Two, Rockstar's parent company, told shareholders at the company's annual meeting.

Such is the secrecy surrounding the highly anticipated game that only a handful of journalists have had the chance to play it, and most were only shown snippets rather than entire missions and levels.

Industry analysts expect fans to buy about six million copies of the game in the first week of sale alone, raking in around $400 million (£200 million) for Rockstar Games.

If so, it will smash the previous entertainment record, set last year by another video game, Halo 3, which sold five million copies in its first week when it was launched in September. Grand Theft Auto IV will be available on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Halo 3 was exclusive to the Xbox 360 platform.

Fans are certainly entitled to worry about details of the game being leaked ahead of its release. Last year Argos sold copies of Halo 3 before it was officially released, blaming a "genuine administrative error" for the mistake.

Rockstar Games will hope that by imposing a global release date for Grand Theft Auto IV, it will avoid some of the issues that surrounded the Halo 3 launch. On that occasion, the game went on sale in the US and Australasia a full 24 hours before it was released in Europe, and lead to clips of the game and the ending being posted on the YouTube video-sharing site.

Grand Theft Auto IV, the latest instalment in the hugely successful, critically acclaimed and long-running franchise, follows the fortunes of Eastern European immigrant Niko as he turns to a life of crime in the US.

Take Two, the parent company of Rockstar Games, is currently locked in a takeover battle with another high profile video game publisher, Electronic Arts. On Friday, EA dropped its bid for the company from $26 per share to $25.74, and extended the deadline for the offer until May 16.

"EA continues to believe that the offer price is full and fair, and that a transaction between Take-Two and EA is the most compelling combination financially, strategically and operationally for all parties," said the company in a statement.

EA originally announced its acquisition plans in March, but Take Two branded the offer "inadequate" and rejected it a week and a half later. The bid then turned hostile as Electronic Arts directly approached Take Two's shareholders. It succeeded in securing about eight per cent of Take Two's shares, but needs to push that up to 50 per cent for its takeover offer to succeed.

Meanwhile, in the United States, a convicted criminal, Jonathan Lee Riches, has launched legal action against Take Two and Rockstar Games, blaming the "sex, drugs and violence" featured in their games for contributing towards his committing identity theft. Riches, currently in prison in South Carolina, also called for the companies to cease distribution of the "newest Grand Theft Auto games".

Riches is a serial litigator - in the past he has filed legal actions against Martha Stewart, Tiger Woods, gossip blogger Perez Hilton and President Bush, among others. According to Fox News, he has also accused Britney Spears of holding him at gunpoint, and alleged that Apple's chief executive, Steve Jobs, employs OJ Simpson as a hitman.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

I wish I was the guy who bought it early before the release! :coolthumbup:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Meanwhile, in the United States, a convicted criminal, Jonathan Lee Riches, has launched legal action against Take Two and Rockstar Games, blaming the "sex, drugs and violence" featured in their games for contributing towards his committing identity theft. Riches, currently in prison in South Carolina, also called for the companies to cease distribution of the "newest Grand Theft Auto games".

Riches is a serial litigator - in the past he has filed legal actions against Martha Stewart, Tiger Woods, gossip blogger Perez Hilton and President Bush, among others. According to Fox News, he has also accused Britney Spears of holding him at gunpoint, and alleged that Apple's chief executive, Steve Jobs, employs OJ Simpson as a hitman.

?!?!?!?!

Dildo. If there is any justice in the universe, this guy is being traded around the cell block like a cheap pack of cigs.

Someone at one of the game mags supposedly completed GTA4 (main missions) in about 30 hours. This probably

explains the source of the You-tube videos that just got pulled.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know the manager of my local 'Game' store, and she said that at midnight on Tuesday 29th 12AM she will open the front door just for me so I can get it early, because I buy games from there every week since it opened 8 yrs ago.

(Joke) But I am going to try.

Most of the game stores here around where I live will be open Monday at midnight and stay open for one hour till 1am Tuesday morning for the people who pre ordered the game.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think that's my plan. The annoying part is my pre-order was in on time for the October release & now the money's

been refunded & I may or may not (most likely) get a copy. (Insert lots of cussing here.) If I do end up w/ a second

copy (X360) I may put it up for sale to members in Australia or some where it's been banned for whatever it cost me

plus actual shipping, won't know until next week.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...