Grand Theft Auto is by far one of the most popular franchises out there, as it dominates its sandbox game genre and, with its latest installment, Grand Theft Auto IV, it has achieved record sales on both the consoles, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and the PC, for which it has recently been launched.

But, although the successful franchise has appeared on a handheld platform as well, having two titles, Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories, released for the PlayStation Portable system, nobody ever expected Rockstar, the company that owns the rights to the IP (Intellectual Property), to announce the fact that it would bring the series to the Nintendo DS platform.

However, it now seems that Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars will be the first game in the franchise to appear on a Nintendo platform. It will feature unique systems, like a drug dealing one, which players will have to use in order to make money, or an interesting cell-shading art style that will have an impact on regular DS gamers.

Now, Gordon Hall, head of Rockstar Leeds, the studio behind this game, comes to talk with 1Up about this future release. He says that the game has been in development for two years now, and it is the biggest project his team has worked on. He goes on to say that the DS community hasn't received a good, mature game, and that this future title will surely change that, by using all the unique features of the DS in order to deliver a great experience to gamers. 

“The game's been in development for two years now, with a big team. This is by far the biggest game Rockstar Leeds has ever done. I remember the conversation I had with Rockstar president Sam Houser that kicked this all off. We both felt the DS community was being starved of mature content, but no third-party publishers were making headway on the platform. We came away from that chat with a target to get something onscreen that would really change the perception of the DS and the games it's capable of making. If we thought, after the initial test phase, that it had potential, we'd back it and hope we could do what Rockstar always tries to do and create new markets.”

Some very interesting statements, which just prove that Rockstar will always try to exploit new markets and new platforms for its games. Let's just hope that this future title will deliver the same great GTA experience to players.