None
Despite enormous pressure from the gaming industry for the tentative date of the hugely anticipated Grand Theft Auto IV’s release, Take2 Interactive chairman Strauss Zelnick refuses to offer one. At a BMO Capital Markets conference, Zelnick said Take2 is “going to give a firm date when we are utterly convinced that we have it and that isn’t right now…We know it’s highly anticipated. Right now our view is to put out a high quality title and we’re not in the business of disappointing investors.”
He also spoke about the exclusive Xbox 360 downloadable content. “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,” Zelnick said. “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.”
Grand Theft Auto IV is currently scheduled for a nebulous Q1 2008 release. GTAIV is probably the highest profile of many games that slipped from a holiday 07 to an early 08 release, including games such as Mercenaries 2, Splinter Cell: Conviction, and Super Smash Bros Brawl.