Have they updated anything on it (other than the tidbits on the new website) at all recently?

Usually people get excited about something when some new information comes across.. the mass of course will only get excited from a tv commercial

ioi said there were more pre orders for GTA4 than pre orders for SSBB.

I don't know how to judge whether this game will have changed from being seen as a PS franchise to being just a franchise or an MS franchise. Do we weight our judgment on software or hardware sales?

Yes, definatly yes. Everyone I know who has a system to play it on is getting ti where I live... that leaves me out :(

Oh well I'm gonna have SSBB!!!! :)

Well, considering it is the third best-selling franchise according to this: http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=14404
(see link inside)

And it was the best selling franchise last gen. Having the highest attachment rate in USA.

Yeah, I'd say it's going to be fairly hyped...

GTA is not just a PS franchise. 2 of Xbox's top 10 games were GTA games.

Yes, people will be very hyped this year in NA about this game. It will probably sell over a million (in xbox + PS3) its first week. Its probably going to be the 2nd most hyped game of the year (after Brawl.)

M$ will not let this game go unnoticed. They will advertise the hell out of it and try to get 'casual' gamers to think it's an M$ exclusive.

GTA is more the same, all GTA are the same history and elements.

As a smash brothers fan I am surprised that you aren't a proponent of the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" motto. I would venture that GTA4 changes around as much from GTA3 as SSBB did from SSBM. Why change the core gameplay when it has worked so well in the past?

now technically you didn't say that GTA's being the same were a bad thing....so if you weren't saying the similarities were bad and simply saying they were all the same without giving a judgement on whether that is good or bad then I apologize.