Yesterday we had reported that GTA IV was delayed. Now an analyst, Michael Pachter has spoken to GamesIndustry.biz and has indicated that Grand Theft Auto IV was delayed because of the PS3 version of the game, with which the Rockstar team had difficulty.
Michael Pachter is an analyst with Wedbush Morgan. He told GamesIndustry.biz, “We think it is likely that the Rockstar team had difficulty in building an exceptionally complicated game for the PS3, and failed to recognize how far away from completion the game truly was until recently. We think it is also likely that Take-Two had a contractual commitment to Sony that it would not favor 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.”
Pachter is of the view that the Take-Two management stumbled badly for the first time during their tenure. He also mentioned that the delay of GTA IV was clearly not the fault of new management and felt that it should have been communicated to investors much earlier than today. However, reports on the Internet indicate that the delay of GTA IV could be a boon for other game publishers like EA and Activision who have lined up a lot of games that will release in the last quarter of 2007. But one question still remains, what about the gamers who are huge fans of the Grand Theft Auto series? They surely will be disappointed.