GTA IV delay blamed on the PS3
posted 05/08/07
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As reported on GamesIndustry.biz
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Analyst Michael Pachter believes Rockstar has delayed the release of Grand Theft Auto IV because it is struggling with development on the PlayStation 3.
And the Xbox 360 version of the game has suffered at least a six month delay as a result, due to contractual obligations that will have prevented the publisher from releasing the game first on Microsoft's machine, says the analyst.
"We think it is likely that the Rockstar team had difficulty in building an exceptionally complicated game for the PS3, and failed to recognise how far away from completion the game truly was until recently," said Pachter.
"We think it is also likely that Take-Two had a contractual commitment to Sony that it would not favour competitor Microsoft by launching the Xbox 360 version of GTA IV prior to launching the PS3 version, and believe that any delay of the PS3 version necessitated a delay of the Xbox 360 version," he added.
This failure to recognise development problems could dent investor confidence in the publisher, even after it has taken steps to improve the green light process for software development.
"Take-Two management stumbled badly for the first time during their tenure," commented Pachter.
"While the delay of GTA IV was clearly not the fault of new management, we believe that it should have been better understood several months ago, and should have been communicated to investors much earlier than today.
"The company has begun an initiative to improve the green light process for new projects, but given the delays of Manhunt and GTA, its process for monitoring projects under development appears to be a failure," he said.
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Source : http://www.gamesindustry.biz
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Of course this is just one person's opinion that's being quoted. There's no 'insider' spilling the beans here and this article is just some 'analyst' voicing his own opinion that's been picked up as being 'news-worthy'. The problem is that this guy always gets his opinion picked up and splattered around the internet as news.
This isn't the first time that Michael Pachter (from US based Wedbush Morgan) has made claims in the past such as the value of EA stock, Xbox 360 price drops, the 'digital distribution versus packaged distribution' argument and a great quote from him back in 2005 we've dug up refers to his thoughts about online gaming.
“I don’t think there are four million people in the world who really want to play online games every month,” Michael Pachter. [source] Apparantly he feels that Microsoft's online strategy is "absolutely flawed" as we don't play console/PC games for social interaction, but rather to escape it.
What do you think? Do you think the PS3 has hampered the development of Grand Theft Auto IV? Do you think analysts like to talk out their rear end? Head to the XBW forums and voice off! - Shane
Visit the Grand Theft Auto IV gamezone for more info on this title
