Finally some long awaited news on Grand Theft Auto IV. We had an email from the R* Webmaster today letting us know the official box art for GTA IV has now been revealed (see that below), and that we now have a date for the third trailer titled "Move up, ladies". Hitting your screens on 6th December at 3PM EST. Also below is a short clip of the box art being painted.

Link: Official GTA IV website

Take-Two, the parent company of Rockstar Games, announced today that they had reached settlement terms regarding all class-action lawsuits at the consumer level. What this means, of course, is that the settlement has not been finalized as of yet, but that several terms have been established regarding the case.

Members of the class-action settlement will be entitled to exchange any '1.0' edition of San Andreas for the edited, 2.0 version, with the 'Hot Coffee' scenes removed, or , IF they can provide a proof of purchase that states the game was bought before July 20, 2005.

The exact terms are as follows:

Under the terms of the settlement, class members will be able to claim benefits if they swear that they:

A. bought a copy of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas before July 20, 2005;

B. were offended and upset by the ability of consumers to modify and alter the game's content using the third-party Hot Coffee modification;

C. would not have bought the game had they known that consumers could modify and alter the game's content using the third-party Hot Coffee modification; and

D. would have returned the game, upon learning the game could be modified and altered, if they thought this possible.

Take-Two plans to spend between .025 million and .75 million on this settlement.

Press Release

After almost a month since the game was originally set to be released, Take2 still can’t pinpoint a release date for Grand Theft Auto IV. Strauss Zelnick, chairman of Take2, refuses to give us a release date until they’re “utterly convinced” that they can commit to said date (unlike last time). Zelnick went on to say, “It’s a fair question given that we weren’t able to stick to our firm date the last time. We’re going to give a firm date when we are utterly convinced that we have it and that isn’t right now,” at a BMO Capital Markets conference yesterday.

Zelnick also mentioned about Rockstar missing the holiday season with such a big title, “I think there was a concern initially when we slipped that we missed the boat in terms of Christmas but I think that concern has been alleviated. I think most people see it as okay – hardware penetration is going to grow over Christmas and because this is a must-have title it's probably okay that we’re not selling it in the Christmas season.” This seems fine to me as well, after the holidays when everyone has a new Xbox 360 or PS3, and has already played through the big titles by second quarter `08, they’ll be dieing to play GTA IV! This might also possibly allow them to bundle-in the game in time for Christmas 2008, although unlikely.

Zelnick said that the exclusive content due out for the Xbox 360 version of the game would not play “A big role in terms of its contribution in 2008.” He continued, saying, “It’s something we ought to be doing and my guess is that’s where the industry is going. If you believe over time that package goods will be supplemented very much with online downloadable content, and you believe as I do that the future of playing interactive entertainment is networked multiplayer, then there’s every reason to believe that downloadable content makes all kinds of sense. And eventually if you have a packaged good and you sell upgrades it’s a pretty terrific business model for everyone. I think it could be really interesting, but to be clear, it’s not in our plans and we’re not relying on it for our success.”

Stay tune for more new regarding GTA IV’s release date!

Source: Joystiq.