Last week's news that Grand Theft Auto 5 will release four months later than originally planned hasn't gone down well among certain, angrier GTA fans. Rockstar has appended a comment to the offending Newswire piece, warning commentators that playground behaviour won't be tolerated.
"Hey all, we understand many of you guys are disappointed with this news," reads the post. "Unfortunately sometimes such delays are necessary in all forms of entertainment, and especially in the case of a game experience as massive and complex as GTAV.
The publisher isn't particularly amused by attempts to read between the lines, either. "To those of you saying or seeing various conspiracy theories about there being some other ulterior motive for this delay, rest assured that they're all nonsense - literally the only reason we've delayed the release is because we want the game to be as good as it needs to be."
"For those of you asking about the official box art, that will be coming out a bit later as well. Thank you all for understanding."
The bit about "conspiracy theories" presumably covers my own suggestion that the new Grand Theft Auto will see release on both current and next generation machines, the latter of which are widely predicted to arrive in the winter. I'm sticking to my guns on that one: Rockstar has, after all, begun work on a next generation game engine. What are your thoughts?
21 comments so far...
lazercut123 on 4 Feb '13 said:
The Jews, its always the Jews.
BTW I am joking, or am i
Bezza89 on 4 Feb '13 said:
Rockstar has now appended? By now, do you mean last thursday when they released the release date?
They had the conspiracy theory one on friday too, no doubt because of news of a Playstation announcement that sent people silly for no reason. You could argue the timing of both is a little coincidental though, no?
OXM ETboy on 4 Feb '13 said:
Heh, fairy nuff. We're a little slow to the punch on this one.
Bezza89 on 4 Feb '13 said:
I wouldn't have mentioned it had I not mentioned already the abuse in the thread for the news last thursday.
OXM ETboy on 4 Feb '13 said:
'Tis all good
I could have sworn the post date-and-time thingy read "23 hours ago" when I saw it.
GHOSTY05 on 4 Feb '13 said:
I am interested to know what there doing about the new gen xbox though!, especially after hearing they are already making a next gen engine.
I mean the new xbox is out just after this game, so i think they will either patch the Xbox 360 game so it looks polished on the new consoles or maybe they will release another version just for the new xbox.
I still think this is one of the reasons for the delay and also to add the ability to purchase property, at least i hope!
EdDeRs1 on 4 Feb '13 said:
what do the conspiracy theorist think it is? 4Chan?
Bezza89 on 4 Feb '13 said:
They think it's being pushed back for simultaneous release on next gen as well as ps3 and 360. I'm not so sure, it's more likely they had just finished play testing and got bad feedback in graphics/bugs areas or some such and need to remedy it. A 4 month delay isn't enough for a port is it? But it might be enough for just polishing, though we might all be misreading and we are actually just getting more Polish in the game due to racism claims of scarcity of Polish in previous GTA games.
OXM ETboy on 4 Feb '13 said:
On the one hand, Rockstar is infamous for delaying games. If they think it'll make a difference to the quality of the final release, all power to 'em. On the other, I find it hard to believe that a game of this magnitude, releasing alongside a new console or two, won't find its way across by fair means or foul. Whether that happens on Xbox 360/PS3 release day or later is another matter.
I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft had been waving the timed exclusivity gun around. Being the only next gen console in town with a GTA game must be an attractive prospect.
stryder84 on 4 Feb '13 said:
its about time that a developer said to the angry cry baby 'fan boys' (i use that term loosely because true fans will understand and say "ok fair enough when you think it is ready, release it") and told them to grow up because whenever ANYTHING is delayed (gtaV), changed (DMC), disliked ending (ME) cry babys take to the forums en masse and go absolutely apes hit (yes i left a gap in there on purpose) saying that the developers have to cater to them...WRONG
The developers are doing something FOR you not because of you, they are doing something they love, not something you want them to do so grow a pair
and finally as someone earlier posted Rockstar are infamous for delays so why the freaking surprise in the first place?
TippiestRook99 on 4 Feb '13 said:
They probably delayed it for bug fixing...
1.GTA is a very famous franchise.Rockstar dont want a GTA game to be super glitchie.
2.RDRs scores suffered because of some minor glitches.
3.If it was glitchie offline players couldnt get updates.
jaymes420 on 4 Feb '13 said:
the delay is no real surprise, GTA IV was delayed for exactly the same reasons, i was pissed off too when i heard about the delay but its pointless and pathetic to be spamming their site with abusive comments, that's just plain retarded and childish., im glad Rockstar wont push out a game they are not 100% happy with just for the sake of deadline, i wish bethesda were more like rockstar, they released skyrim FULLY aware of the bugs and crashes, and did so just so they could stick to their fancy 11/11/11 release date, so im glad Rockstar stick to their guns and wont take our money until they are sure they have released it polished and complete,...more dev companies could learn a LOT from Rockstar ,
Michael Brittain on 4 Feb '13 said:
all i can say is ive already preordered it and dont care if it comes in christmas its gonna be worth the wait
Drainwater on 4 Feb '13 said:
Same here. That's just 4 more months for my enthusiasm to build. These people need to grow up and/or get a life. Go play some Call of Duty or something (oh yeah, I went there
).
FATAL VISI0N on 5 Feb '13 said:
This is my conspiracy theory
The game was pushed back because it will be released for the Next Xbox.
Here is why.
A new console is being released sometime this Holiday Season, between Sept thru Dec. If this is true why would a PUBLISHER want to market a game that will be exclusive to the 360 of this caliber so close to a new console launch, KNOWING, that most gamers trade in their older consoles to afford the new ones. So am I to believe they are publishing a game and expect consumers to hold off from trading in their console to AFFORD a new console just for GTA???? If the game is NOT being released for the Next Xbox, then this is very poor marketing. Publishers put deadlines on developers all the time, if the deadline is not met they cont. to push out the game anyway with a release day patch.
I am most certain, this game will be released for the Next Xbox as well as the 360, I havent found a valid argument against this
yet. Of coarse Rockstar would never confirm anything like this before launch. Instead we'll use the good 'ol Polishing the Game catch all which most gamers, and I dont know why, but always seem to fall for, perhaps that's why they use the Polishing the Game excuse so much.
Now I love Rockstar Games. I will buy any and every game they shovel out, and I'm not upset at all over this delay, I cant wait for GTA V, the fact they are making it, is all I need, I'll wait, but dont expect me to believe your polishing a game for the 360 and not the Next Xbox.
My 2nd and final guess, remember you heard it from me first, The next xbox will premiere before E3, the countdown on Maj. Larry Herbs website, is not for the announcement of the Next Xbox, it's the announcement of the exclusive GTA V dlc for the Next Xbox!
Blackie252 on 5 Feb '13 said:
My own personal theory is they have 2 in game characters sat on a grassy knoll, killing of other in-game characters and they are struggling amongst the surrounding backlash to find and delete these unknown assassins!
CunningSmile on 5 Feb '13 said:
Ninja Theory did eventually say to the DMC critics to basically F*** off until they'd played it. Not in so many words obviously but it wasn't far off. Just one more reason I like Ninja Theory because I agree with you entirely.
GHOSTY05 on 5 Feb '13 said:
It would make a fantastic Xbox 720 Launch Title, i for one will be buying the new Xbox, but if the 360 version comes out first then i will buy that first and simply wait for the new console and new GTA version
I can only imagine how good this game will be on the new consoles, full 1080p visuals, massive draw distances, no slowdown, cannot wait, i really hope the new xbox is out before christmas with an updated version of GTA 5
SidTheSloth on 5 Feb '13 said:
The next-gen version would all depend on how scaleable the engine they used is as to how much better it'd be. Something like EA's frostbite is well known to be able to easily scale between different architecture, but we don't know much about R*s. We know they're building a next gen one but that doesn't necessarily mean shit for GTA V. I agree with the notion that they'll bring out a next gen port (like they did with Bully for the 360), but how much it'll benefit from that is open to debate... One could also argue that if the '720' version is obviously superior it could well harm 360 sales which im sure is something they want to avoid at all costs.
Sandbwoy on 5 Feb '13 said:
I can understand fans getting annoyed at yet another delay, but being abusive isn't going to solve anything. I do find it quite amusing that Rockstar addressed the issue though haha
GHOSTY05 on 5 Feb '13 said:
I don't agree with all the abuse, swearing etc.
However to be honest rockstar brought it upon themselves, by dangling carrots and knowing full well the game was not going to come out during this time.
I mean they are masters at building tension and drip feeding information.