The Grand Theft Auto (GTA) saga continues…With GTA 4 announcing its global release on 29th April 2008, it is said to be one of the most anticipated games of 2008 (or perhaps ever!) and estimated to earn sales in the excess of $400 mil or 6 million units within the first week. Upon the release date, GTA 4 has been heavily marketed around the world in the form of TV, online and print advertising.
Grand Theft Auto 4 has received shining reviews by gaming experts due to its rich environments, improved physics, in depth story plot and gameplay with many magazines giving it a perfect score of 10/10.
For the Australians…It has been confirmed by a spokesperson from Rockstar that an edited version of GTA 4 will be released in Australia & New Zealand to avoid R18+ classification, which does not exist in video games and will result in refusal of classification by the OFLC. This is believed to be due to a certain mission in the game where the main character must seek retribution of a friend who was a rape victim in jail. The mission requires a weapon which is used to sodomise the offender and due to the nature of this, it may be viewed as sexual assault which is a mandatory R18+ classification rating.
Grand Theft Auto IV has been released for both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3
EDIT: Take-Two has posted that the total sales for the first week for GTA IV topped $500 mil USD (that’s right, half a billion!!), well above analysts predictions. This makes GTA IV the biggest gaming release in history, beating Halo 3 which raked in sales of $300mil in its first week of opening.