Grand Theft Auto 4 - THE FACTS

"These are the known facts"

The Facts
• Games Official Name: CONFIRMED.
The has been entitled Grand Theft Auto 4/Grand Theft Auto IV (GTA4/GTAIV). It was expected, and has been confirmed by many other facts and news reports that have arised. Such as the official website for Grand Theft Auto IV being http://www.rockstargames.com/grandtheftauto4/ as well as the game being announced as "GTA4" by many game developers, Rockstar employees and game magazines. Now the '4' does not stand for the 4th GTA game. Because as we know, the officially 4th GTA game was GTA Vice City. The game series is worked as follows:

• Grand Theft Auto 1 - GTA 1, GTA London 1961 and GTA London 1969
• Grand Theft Auto 2
• Grand Theft Auto 3 - GTA III, GTA Vice City and GTA San Andreas - GTA Liberty City Stories and GTA Vice City Stories could also be included in this.
• Grand Theft Auto 4

So it can be put simply as 'a series of games on a new game engine with a new compilation of stories that clash with each other'. This means, GTA 3 was a series of games on the new 3D engine containing 3 games (5 if you include LCS and VCS) that all had there own story. When played together, you noticed them clashing together where you meet people before/after another game or visited places that you had or would soon do business in.

As you can see, the name "Grand Theft Auto IV" has been registered and is now a Registered Trademark of Rockstar Games and Take2Interactive. So it is near certain the game will be called Grand Theft Auto IV/Grand Theft Auto 4 and will be a series of new GTA games that run on a new game engine, with a new compilation of stories that will clash together, exactly the same as the Grand Theft Auto 3 series of games.

• Setting and Theme: UNCONFIRMED.

No concrete information has been found or announced that in anyway inclines us to discover where the game will be based and what the theme as it will be. Rockstar are well-known for there 'keep it quiet' approach. We don't expect any firm information on the theme or location of the game to be announced for awhile yet.

Although, this has not stopped speculation amongst the GTA community. Some believe the game will be based in Europe, most primly, London. Were as others are still keen on it being in Carcer City. With other pointing towards in depth research of previous games radio stations and signs. Then there's others going to such measures as believing the game will be based in a city/state with 8 letters. Only time will tell if any of this speculation was heading in the right direction.

• Platforms: CONFIRMED - Xbox 360 and PS3.

So far Grand Theft Auto has been announced for the Playstation 3 (PS3) and the Xbox 360. A PC release has not been announced, although one is expected. If there is a PC release, it will not be until around June-July 2008. If you wish to have your say on whether you believe there should/will be a PC release or not visit DexX's poll and topic on it located here.

Please note that there is currently NO WAY of telling whether one platform will have benefits over the other. According to traditional marketing, it is VERY unlikely that either platform (360 or PS3) will have content that will cause one version to be sold more than the other. It is in the publisher's interests to sell as many copies for both platforms as possible. Those that also say that either the 360 or PS3's game discs will not be able to hold the full game is FULL OF SH*T. If there was going to be any problems publishing the game for either platform, Rockstar would never have announced they would be releasing for said platform. Please remember this is a professional organisation with years of experience in producing and marketing videogames, not a battery of chickens that flutter about this forum reading fabricated hardware incompatibilities they had no idea existed.

• Episodic Content : CONFIRMED

During Microsoft's E³ press conference in 2006, Peter Moore announced that Rockstar Games were working on two extra downloadable packs via Xbox Live exclusively for the Xbox 360. peter Moore's described these extra packs as 'epic episode packs' and woudn't just be the extra feature such as a few cars or clothing items but hours of entire new gameplay. This had been confirmed by Rockstar, announcing two extra, exclusive episodes.

There have been rumors that the Playstation 3 will also be getting it's own downloadable content different to the Xbox 360's content, which will be downloadable via the Sony's online service.

Earlier this week (beginning February 26th) Take 2 Interactive Software released a statement confirming that the Episodic Content for GTA4 will be released sometime in 2008. No exact date has been confirmed yet but being given a definite year is a start. Still no information on how much these downloads will cost, so stay tuned for the confirmed details.

Take 2 Statement confirming Episodic Content release year

• Graphics Technology : CONFIRMED

Rockstar have confirmed that they will be planning on using their new 'RAGE' engine to power up their latest installment of Grand Theft Auto, A preview of this engine can be seen in Rockstar's latest game 'Rockstar presents table tennis' and if these graphics are anything to go by fans will not be disappointed in the next generation of Grand Theft Auto.

RAGE, short for Rockstar Advanced Game Engine, is a custom-developed visual engine that excels at rendering elaborate animations, particularly cloth texture. This is already evident in Table Tennis, as the clothing of the players swishes and sways realistically with their movements.

• Release Date: CONFIRMED

• October 16th, 2007 for North America
• October 19th, 2007 for Europe

Due to the way Rockstar/Take Two's fiscal year breaks down, combined with their need to please the shareholders, the accepted wisdom is that the next 'real' GTA will touch down sometime around November/October. Whether it will officially make it and be on time for that release date is still something to worry about. We have seen draw backs with nearly all GTA releases, so only time will tell.


Go check them all out.

Grand Theft Auto 4 - 1st Trailer

Released 29th March 2007
11:00pm Greenwich Mean Time (UK)
6:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time (USA)