Take-Two said today that Grand Theft Auto IV has surpassed all-time entertainment records for day one and week one sales by dollar value. Released just a week and one day ago,GTA IV has sold approximately 6 million units globally with an estimated retail value of more than $500 million in the first week. The game sold approximately 3.6 million units on its opening day with a retail value of approximately $310 million globally.Take-Two Chairman Strauss Zelnick sounds practically beaming when he states the following:
“We knew Grand Theft Auto IV would break new ground in terms of the player’s experience, with its compelling story line, extraordinary gameplay and action that ranges over a broad urban canvas. Now, it has broken sales and rating records as well. Grand Theft Auto IV’s first week performance represents the largest launch in the history of interactive entertainment, and we believe these retail sales levels surpass any movie or music launch to date. We congratulate the entire Rockstar team on creating a must-have experience that takes the legendary Grand Theft Auto franchise to a new level.”
Ben Feder, Take-Two’s Executive Officer went on to say:
“Rockstar’s goal is to make each new title in the Grand Theft Auto franchise even better than those that preceded it, and Grand Theft Auto IV is a smashing success on that score. Grand Theft Auto IV makes full use of the power of next generation technology, and offers players an experience unique in the interactive entertainment medium. This game sets a new standard in the industry, with critics hailing it as both an artistic and technological masterpiece.”
We all knew it would sell well, so this news just basically stated the obvious, but $500 million dollars is pretty darn awesome nonetheless. Plus, thanks to this wonderful bit of cash, stock in Take-Two was up $0.29 (cents) to $26.35 as of Tuesday.
Via: Press Release
If you found this story interesting, why not subscribe to our RSS feed to get your daily fix of gaming news?
While I’m working behind-the-scenes at FileFront & Gaming Today, I use twitter on a daily basis since I find it’s a great way to get to know people from the gaming community without actually chatting with them. During my day, I get twitters from hundreds of people. The things I read vary from simple daily going-ons, to more specific comments or ideas about gaming. One discussion in particular got me thinking. Should GTA IV be a rental or a purchase?
I personally have been a member of GameFly and other services similar to it, and I enjoyed the service until they cancelled my subscription due to too many games gone missing. That isn’t the issue here though. The reason why I decided to write this article to address a very popular trend among people who rent games: Renting GTA IV or triple-A titles altogether.
During Take-Two’s shareholders’ meeting yesterday, the publisher told attendants that GTA IVhas gone gold. The game “is in production and in trucks en route to retailers” sated CEO Ben Feder. We only have another 11 days to go, so let’s see if retailers can keep it off shelves until April 29th - please guys, no faux pas ok?
Certain “industry analysts” like Janco Partner’s Mike Hickey predicted opening week sales of 9.5 million, with 5.8 million units being sold in the US alone, and certain sources within Take-Two expect the game to sell over 6 million units during launch week, with revenues exceeding $400 million.
It does not matter who has the most accurate predictions, it is going to be huge, and this is something everyone and their Uncle Fred have known since the game was announced.
Strategy guide publisher BradyGames today announced that it has been working exclusively with Rockstar Games on the GTA IV Official Strategy Guide which promises to cover everything Liberty City has to offer. It will be released the same day as the game on April 29th.
The GTA IVOfficial Guide is vast and includes 288 pages along with a 10-page foldout and has been written by Tim Bogenn and Rick Barbain, in direct collaboration with Rockstar Games for both the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions. Everything from game basics, tips and weapons to vehicle missions, new multiplayer options, secrets and a full walkthrough are covered.
Today also sees the launch of ‘Rockstar Social Club’– an online leaderboard and community hub where GTA players will be able to measure their gameplay against their peers and compare various awards. Rockstar will be giving away very limited supplies of awards to players who achieve certain milestones first. The Official Guide will also detail the complete list of how to attain all of the game’s Achievement Points and the associated bragging rights that go with knowing you’ve completed some of the game’s most gruelling tests before anyone else.
With games as large as the GTA ones are, sometimes it is good to have a guide so that you don’t miss out on anything.
Some gamers in Sweden really want their very own copies of GTA IV badly enough that they are already starting to camp out for it. To add to the their desire to camp out for the game, the store is giving the first ten customers through the door who purchase GTA IV some really cool prizes and some of these prizes include actual consoles.
It gets really cold in Sweden, so I hope they have brought enough supplies and food to sustain them for the next 17 days. Hit the link at the end of the post for more pictures of these crazy Swedes.
So the cool GTA IV trailer that was released last week and toted as the “final trailer” until the April 29 launch, was apparently not so final after all. Today, GameStop and Rockstar games teamed up to bring us another GTA IV trailer and this one has to be my favorite.
With 8 hours of cutscenes, over 100 hours of estimated gameplay, tons of achievements, its own little social club and downloadable tracks, GTA IV is going to give gamers one helluva ride.
As was alluded to in Stephany’s post this morning, Rockstar will be launching The Rockstar Social Club, a new website that will act as an online leaderboard tracking every action you can think of in compatible Rockstar games, starting of course with Grand Theft Auto IV. After registration opens on April 15, you’ll be able to sign up with your Xbox Live Gamertag and/or PlayStation Network ID, the site will track all sorts of data and present it in a number of ways.
LCPD Police Blotter — A virtual map and tracker of single-player criminal activity logged in Liberty City from the aggregated data of millions of connected players - showing the most dangerous areas of town, most commonly used weapons and more.
The Story Gang — This special single-player leaderboard recognizes players who complete Niko Bellic’s main story arc of Grand Theft Auto IV - The leaderboard ranks players according to the total amount of playing time it’s taken to complete the story, as well as a historical rank by who has completed it first. Members of this club will receive special online widgets and merit badges marking all of their in-game accomplishments.
The 100% Club — Watch to see who will be the first to complete 100% of the game. The first ten people to be identified on the Social Club as reaching 100% will be sent an ultra-rare commemorative ‘key to the city’ to mark their accomplishment. In the future, the 100% Club will then carry a historical leaderboard showing rankings of who has completed 100% of a game in the shortest span of playing hours.
The Hall of Fame — This area will dynamically recognize those singularly elite players who have reached the top of the hill on various statistical leaderboards, and will also contain a personal awards display of special in-game landmarks and successes in Social Club competitions.
The Liberty City Marathon — A ranking of special physical milestones achieved in the game - from the amount of miles walked, driven, or swam - to the number of bullets fired and stunt-jumps jumped. There will be additional special marathon-based competitions in the future from this area as well.
The Rockstar Social Club doesn’t stop there. With special competitions, leaderboards and challenges rolling out regularly in the weeks and months following the game’s release, this is just the beginning of an on-going Liberty City experience and is a small taste of what’s to come from Rockstar Games for GTAIV and beyond…
This sounds really, really cool. I loved going in and checking out the various stats that previous GTA games would track, but now being able to share that information and compare it with others through a website is a major improvement. Sure, chances are that the top-tracked players for distance walked and things of that nature will be people will turn their systems on and leave the game running with the controller running Niko in circles for days on end, but at least you’ll be able to keep tabs on you and your friends’ activity.
Apparently, the glorious American version of GTA IV will allow gamers to to download MP3s from Amazon for use in the game. Thanks to the success of Rock Band and its downloadable content, Rockstar and Amazon have decided to get in on the “music download wagon”.
Advertised throughout Liberty City, the cheekily-named “ZiT” technology is built into the game’s mobile phone interface system. As players cruise around the world listening to the in-game radio, they can at any point ‘mark’ a song by opening their phone and dialing the number ZIT-555-0100. Gamers will then receive a text message with the song and artist names, and if they’re registered at the forthcoming Rockstar Social Club community site, they’ll find an e-mail waiting in their inbox with a direct link to a custom playlist on Amazon.com. All songs tagged “ZiT” will be stored here, available for preview and purchase at Amazon’s going rate of $.89-$.99 per track. Best of all, those MP3s are free of the Digital Rights Management (DRM) limitations imposed on files downloaded through Apple’s iTunes store and thus can be imported into any computer or digital device with no constraints.
Although the songs downloaded will not be accessible outside the game, with over 150 tracks for the GTA IV soundtrack alone, you will have ample music to crash, kill, maim, cruise and pick up hookers to. How awesome is that?
Before you go to bed tonight dear readers, you need to log onto XBL or the official GTA IV website for the last trailer for the most anticipated game of 2008.Titled “Good Lord, What Are You Doing?” aka “Everyone’s a Rat” will be up around 10pm tonight, and although we are currently unaware of the content of the trailer, hopefully it will show us some actual gameplay or maybe a glimpse of the elusive multiplayer aspect of GTA IV. Whatever they do decide to show us though, should continue to make our mouths water.
April 29 is only 34 days away, so if you have not pre-ordered the game you will probably miss out on the day of launch as GTA IV will most likely knock Halo 3 off its throne.
The folks over at Rockstar games are a class act. Not only do they provide hours of vicarious entertainment via their ultra fun and violent GTA games, but they are constantly giving gamers cool assets and other neat visual fodder to keep them sated until GTA IVcomes screeching into our lives on April 29th.
Not content with just sitting back and letting us wonder about content and new information on the game, Rockstar has once again updated the official GTA IV site will a bevy of new screens, trailers, and general hilarity.
Rival gaming companies take note: This is how you treat gamers. You treat them like rockstars.
Rockstar finally delivered on their promise to issue a patch for Bully: Scholarship Edition yesterday, so if you logged into XBL you should have been able to download it. The problem with the patch though, according to some who downloaded it, is that it did not seem to fix many of the game’s issues.
According to some posters over on MTV’s Multiplayer Blog, a few users are still experiencing freezing, frame rate issues, audio glitches, an errands still disappearing. So what if anything did this patch fix? Are the issues that some gamers are still experiencing just an isolated issue, or is it perhaps due to not installing the patch properly (if that is possible), or is it possibly an Xbox issue, or is it just a crummy patch all around?
We are unsure at this point, so just keep your shirts on until we can find out one way or the other - but you can guarantee that we will keep you updated on the situation as soon as more information becomes available.
A huge collective “meh” has made its way through the gaming community in the UK today. News of Manhunt 2 finally being released with an “18″ rating even after the BBFC’s refusal to give the game any sort of UK classification. Now, thanks to the High Court’s ruling allowing the release with said rating, the BBFC has now decided against vetoing the release and will wait until it hits the public before pursuing any further action.
I suppose if the game was not so crappy I would be thrilled for gamers in the UK dying to get their hands on it, but considering the fact that it was nothing but a big fat steaming pile of disappointment, I feel sorry for them instead. Its one thing to be waiting patiently for a controversial game if it is worth the wait, but when its quite the opposite, it all just becomes rather anticlimactic.
To catch up on all the drama surrounding the UK vs Manhunt 2 debacle, check out our previous posts.
No, this isn’t a joke. The cases over allowing Manhunt 2 to be sold in the UK still haven’t been settled, and we’ve now got a new development.
We last left off with the British Board of Film Classification deciding to appeal Rockstar’s successful appeal to the Video Appeals Committee. That appeal has gone through and the court has decided to rule against the VAC’s decision.
In other words, Manhunt 2 still cannot be sold in the UK.
I could beg and plead for them to just let this go, but I know that will never happen. Gamers have moved on (if they even cared in the first place), and really the BBFC is continuing to give the game free press for whenever it does eventually release – which I do believe it will do.
The only thing I don’t understand is how the VAC’s decision can be overturned. What’s the point in having an appeals committee if the appeal can be appealed?
In the past, retailers have had the tendency to slip-up with their advertisements regarding games that have not been give a set release date. Sears, Target, GameStop, and Circuit City are the largest culprits when trying to get gamers to shop at their stores, but this time it is not the usual suspects.
Recently, Micro Center listed GTA IV in one of their sales circulars with a release date of March 08. The ad states that “New release availability dates are subject to change”, which means they either have no clue or are just covering their asses. Whatever the case may be, Rockstar was contacted by Game Daily (who broke the news), and a Rockstar rep stated that Grand Theft Auto IV “is going to come out during our second financial quarter of 08.”
So, as usual, take this for what it is worth - speculation. With Super Smash Bros. Brawl hitting stores on March 9th, if GTA IV were to drift into stores around the same time, this could turn into nothing short of a feeding frenzy.
What? Would you rather I stir the MGS4 exclusivity cauldron for a millionth time? Let’s give the fanboys something fresh to fight over.
Recently, Videogamer was keen to point out a job listing over at Gamasutra that could provide clear evidence that L.A. Noire may once and for all be heading to Microsoft’s Xbox 360. Well… if job listings are enough sheer proof for you, that is.
The job advertisement posted is specifically for Lead Animator at Team Bondi. The ad states: “Team Bondi is an independent game development company based in Sydney, Australia, producing next-generation console titles. The current title in development, L.A. Noire is a 1940’s detective thriller being published by Rockstar Games.”
The most interesting detail to note here is that the job lists Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 as the platforms one so inclined would developing on.
One might even be so bold as to compare Rockstar Games’ console exclusivity indecisiveness regarding its upcoming black & white stylized 1940’s setting game to that of a certain opposite sex. Yet, in fear of my life, I won’t go there either.
Still, it does bring L.A. Noire’s console exclusivity into question - even if for the millionth time.
The reverse engineering gurus over at MultiTheftAuto.com have seen fit to release a working preview of their work-in-progress multiplayer addition/modification to Rockstar’s mega-hit Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
This multiplayer modification is obviously intended for PC owners of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
MTA’s developers want to emphasize that the current release of MTA:SA is simply a preview release (bugs inclusive) of the MTA platform they wish to build upon. MTA:SA is powered by the LUA scripting language, so anyone with a knack for scripting is encouraged to help in the development of mods or game modes for MTA:SA. One can find a Developer Preview release download link here.
For those of you interested in just having fun or playing around with the client portions of MTA:SA, a download link to the MTA:SA deathmatch client installer is provided below. You must have Grand Theft Auto:San Andreas (PC) installed for MTA:SA to work.
If I would have told you that the above trailer was released by Rockstar Games, I’m sure all of you would totally believe me. As you probably read by the title of this article, it was done by The Duo Group. The trailer is a compilation of multiple trailers that were originally released by Rockstar Games, but were put together with a new soundtrack that really fits the “Rockstar Games” personality.
If you haven’t checked out The Duo Group’s take on Dig Dug, you owe it to yourself to check it out.
While the title of this post may get you all excited, please note that the 10% discount is only valid during launch week. But that is still good news guys, because you can get all of your favorite Rockstar Games cheaper than usual, and cheaper is always better - well, price wise anyway.Starting today, gamers may purchase Rockstar Games’ titles, including the complete Grand Theft Auto and Max Payne series plus Manhunt and Midnight Club II.
The Rockstar games now available on Steam include:
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Grand Theft Auto III
Grand Theft Auto II
Grand Theft Auto
Midnight Club II
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
Max Payne
Manhunt
Wild Metal Country
So if you were planning on purchasing any of the aforementioned titles, now is the perfect opportunity to buy them. For more information, visit Steam.
Whoever said that gamers don’t have a heart and are full of nothing but the desire to do evil need to take this into consideration. Rockstar Games, everyone’s favorite miscreants of the developing circuit have donated a handmade lunchbox to the online charity auction Charity Folks. Here are the details:
Rockstar Games: Development division of video game publisher Take-Two Interactive (Grand Theft Auto, Midnight Club); Executive producers (Sunday Driver, The Football Factory).
This lunchbox is quilted inside with fun brain-patterned stitching and includes a battery-powered light bulb with on/off switch; comes with extra light bulbs.
For the 2007 Lunchbox Auction, 100+ iconic celebrities from the entertainment, fashion, art, music, literary and culinary worlds remind us that food matters by creating personalized lunchbox art for online auction. The auction, which goes live on Friday, December 7, 2007 at 12 a.m. EST, will benefit two hunger-relief organizations — Food Bank For New York City and The Lunchbox Fund of South Africa. Each lunchbox is signed and numbered and no two lunchboxes are alike.
If you are so inclined, you can also bid on a piece of art designed by Carmen Electra (sorry it is not an article of her clothing), tickets to the premiere of the movie “Sex and the City” (heaven help us all) , and even a lunch date with bloody vial toting Billy Bob Thornton. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed that Clive Owen had not donated anything to the site. I would gladly pay any amount asked just for some of his finger nail clippings. Of course I am kidding…. maybe.
As if the new trailer for GTA IV was not enough to make your mouth water just a little bit, the new screens from Take 2 and Rockstar will make it pour the saliva. Not only do the game’s graphics look like it will be taking full advantage of whatever gaming system you purchase it for, but it looks even more gritty and diabolical than any previous installment. If that is possible. Whatever the case may be, GTA IV will be worth every pre-order penny I laid down on it.
During Take-Two’s shareholders’ meeting yesterday, the publisher told attendants that 
No, this isn’t a joke. The cases over allowing Manhunt 2 to be sold in the UK still haven’t been settled, and we’ve now got a new development.
