First details of the eagerly awaited downloadable content for Grand Theft Auto IV have emerged, with initial reports suggesting the Xbox 360 exclusive pack will shift the focus away from Niko Bellic.
Revealed by USA Today, the downloadable content is titled 'Lost and Damned', and centres around the character of Johnny Klebitz, a member of Liberty City's biker gang The Lost.
Rockstar's Dan Houser said of the add-on '"I can't go into too much detail on the story, because we try not to give away too much plot before the game is released. But I can say that the story will show you a different side of Liberty City."
Further details are scarce, although a February 17 release date has been attached to Lost and Damned.
Rockstar have released some video clips they made with GTA IV's in-game video editor, available only in the PC version.
Gamers will be able to upload their creations to the Rockstar Games Social Club. The game is set for release in the US on December 2 and in Europe on December 3.
At the same BMO Capital Markets' conference last week in New York where he gave an update on upcoming GTAIV DLC and Chinatown Wars, Take Two CEO Strauss Zelnick offered a glimpse further down the road. In his "Negative Approach" blog for cnet, Dave Rosenberg related these remarks from Zelnick:
The Holy Grail is taking a business, already a very large and successful business that's focused on packaged goods... and turning that into a subscription business or a semi subscription business where we have an ongoing relationship with consumers, giving them products that they want. Who's better positioned to do that than the company that has the top franchises?
It isn't much of a stretch here to start connecting the dots. The Grand Theft series definitely fits the bill as a "successful business that's focused on packaged goods," and it's also the top of their franchise properties. And though delayed, the DLC plan for GTAIV offers an ideal test run for a "semi... More »
A Spanish magazine recently got their hands on Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the Nintendo DS and discussed map details.
It appears as though the game will feature a similar map as GTA IV, though without Alderney.
To quote: Even though many people believed that Chinatown Wars would develop only in the Chinese neighborhood the game uses nearly the whole map that appears in GTA IV.
The districts that appear are: Dukes (Queens), Bohan (Bronx), Broker (Brooklyn) and Algonquin (Manhattan).
The only neighborhood from GTA IV that doesn’t appear is Alderney (Jersey City).
Here's a little known fact: Despite producing one of Sony's most hyped titles of the year, LittleBigPlanet, Media Molecule actually has no affiliation with them outside of that.
The ex-Lionhead ragtag group of developers is a third party studio and could make titles for any system.
However, rumors are pouring in that Sony, enjoying the commercial and critical reception of MM's LittleBigPlanet, has just offered them an exclusive 3 game contract and the guys over at Media Molecule have graciously accepted.
Though its too early to expect to see anything substantial from them any time soon, expect some sort of announcement over the course of 2009.
Before even receiving a set release date, GTA: Chinatown Wars, the upcoming GTA installment for the Nintendo DS, has joined the ranks of GTA IV PC and Xbox 360 downloadable content as delayed.
At a press conference today, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick confirmed GTA IV DLC’s delay rumors stating that it may arrive as late as Spring 2009.
Zelnick also stated that Chinatown Wars isn’t scheduled to be released in the first quarter of the 2009 fiscal year (January 2009) as initially expected, but will arrive within Q2 2009, which ends in April.
One of the most feel-good stories of the year has got to be the unholy alliance between NPD/GfK/Enterbrain, that lets us see - every three months, at least - what the biggest-selling games are not in the US, Europe or Japan, but in the world.
Last time we checked, the best-seller was GTA IV. This time around, for the quarter running from July-September? It's Madden. Madden, followed by daylight.
1. Madden 09 - 2.994 million
2. Wii Fit - 2.089 million
3. Force Unleashed - 1.738 million
4. Pokemon Platinum - 1.482 million
5. Mario Kart Wii - 1.468 million
What's even more interesting than the raw numbers is the percentage of those final tallies US sales comprise. For Madden, of the 2.994 million, 2.958 were in the US.
Proving, in case Americans were unaware, how few people outside North America give a rat's arse about American Football. Yet for Wii Fit and Mario Kart, US numbers accounted for barely half of tot... More »
While speaking with Variety, Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser gave some disappointing news about the downloadable content that Xbox 360 user’s were promised to come out by the end of the year.
While its still on track to be released for Microsoft exclusively, he’s just not sure if we’ll see it by the end of the year.
“Me: On another topic, I have to ask you about the “GTA IV” downloadable content you’re doing. Do you still expect that to come out this year?”
“DH: I’m not sure. It’s going well. But we don’t know a date. We hope to be announcing that in the next few weeks. We’re still figuring out a few things. We’re more focused on quality than dates, always have been. But the development is going really good. It’s shaping up to be something we’re very proud of. That was our goal.”
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