50 million would not be enough to buy GTA IV exclusivity....

If 50 million was only enough for exclusive downloadable stuff, how much do you think they would have asked for the actual game?

Hundreds of millions of dollars, or MS would have already bought it.

not too long ago, their were reports of Rockstar having trouble with the 360 version b/c the lack of a hard drive in every system. . . . .

PS3 could very well be the problem, but the game started out as a PS3 exclusive so therefore being developed ground up for the PS3 and ported to 360. Not the other way around.

Okay I have asked this at an European analyst and he said that this is correct.

He also said that michael patcher is on Sony's payroll so it would be very strange that this is guy bashing on PS3.


If I look around the internet this are the four reasons that could have been (if you don't believe the Analyst I am speaking about).

Here are four possible conspiracy theories we'll gladly throw into the mix...

1)The PS3 version held it back
Rockstar has had Xbox 360 development kits for a long time now, and released Rockstar Presents Table Tennis on the system last year - which, it's important to remember, uses the same RAGE engine that powers GTA IV. So in some form at least, GTA IV's engine is already up and running in a shippable form on Xbox 360.

2)Rockstar bit off more than it could chew
Rockstar founder Sam Houser says it all: "The game is huge and is pushing the hardware platforms to their absolute limits." And "Certain elements of development proved to be more time-intensive than expected, especially given the commitment for a simultaneous release on two very different platforms."

3)It was never going to make it
In our recent sneak peak, we couldn't overlook the significant number of graphical glitches in the GTA IV demo. Sure it was early but shadows and lighting systems weren't quite up and running and there was a small bit of pop-up in the crowded Liberty City. Rockstar warned us that this was early code we were seeing, but we can't ignore the demo's graphical state now that the game's been delayed for possibly six entire months.

4)Manhunt 2's to blame
Another thing we can't ignore is that little over a month ago Manhunt 2, one of the company's biggest releases, was denied release in the UK - something that despite Rockstar's continuous pushing of boundaries has never happened before. This must have caused a massive shake-up inside the company.

Is it far fetched to suggest that perhaps, looking at the BBFC's decision, Rockstar decided to scale back on some of the more explicit content in GTA IV? After all, we're not looking at blocky PS2 graphics anymore.

Or do Rockstar believe Manhunt 2 will be released and don't want to to go head-to-head with GTA IV?

I don't buy that because every time they demonstrated the game or released demos they were of the 360 version which leads me to believe it was further ahead in development.

What really bothers me in all this if it's true is Sony.  Why did they have to put the Cell processor in the PS3 in the first place?  There were more than enough processors out there that would have handled the job and not give game developers headaches.  Instead Sony spent billions developing a solution to a problem that didn't exist.  And not only are PS3 fans screwed over by having to pay higher costs for the PS3 but now some of the rest of us are now being screwed over as well because of them (if this story turns out to be true and the PS3 is indeed the reason).

Sorry to rant it's just that it seems like we're all suffering because of some of Sony's previous stupid decisions.  Game developers having to devote more time and resources and experience delays that cost money and gamers that experience delays in games.

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/levelup/archive/2007/08/02/speculation-on-the-factors-behind-gta-iv-delay.aspx

Looks like both versions are in a pretty bad way. Apparently both Sony and MS have had to send dev teams to R* in order to get the game finished.

It would probably be more cost effective to buy out Rockstar as a whole, MS could do it, but they'd rather disrupt the market than own it amongst other logistics. My brother is a Sony diehard but can't wait to get this game for the 360 because of the extra content. I've never had too much love for the series, you play one, you've played them all IMO.

It really doesn't matter the reasons why.
It is gonna suck waiting for the game no matter what caused it.

They got burned a bit when they bought Rare for a lot of money, that's probably something that would be on their minds if they ever considered buying them.

I think it's simple:

For the XBox, they're at the limits of the console, and now trying to squeeze anything out of it to meet their needs as much as possible.

For the PS3, it's harder to develop, so there's still a learning curve which turned out to be steeper than they thought at first.

I think MS would be a bit pissed when the game would look and played better on the PS3, and sony would be pissed if they didn't use the powers of the PS3.

Crazy ass hypothesis:

Microsoft's 50 million dollar deal was for exclusive downloadable content.  Perhaps Rockstar (who seems to be getting closer to Sony all the time)  has created a deal that they will package the game with the ps3 (also with a huge price drop).  Sony did say they would be the victor in the console race by March 2008. What if some form of the downloadable content is made exclusive to the PS3 by virtue of blu-ray disc capacity.  Why would this delay the 360 version?  For all of the good reasons already mentioned, and they wouldn't want to piss off the 360 owners that wouldn't have the same content available by download at the same time.  Just an idea.