GTA IV Is Getting Download-Only Content

After Take Two revealed its less than stellar financial results and made some interesting disclosures regarding its game release schedule for 2008 and 2009, new bits of information regarding GTA IV keep surfacing here and there.

Rockstar is already shifting its weight around to move to a post-launch team for GTA IV and another big AAA title is beginning its development cycle at the Take Two-owned studio. At the same time, Sam Houser, the big boss at Rockstar, has recently said that a GTA-themed MMO is a real clear possibility and that it would be "highly doable". It is pretty clear though that such an MMO is not the next AAA title Rockstar has planned, but only a distant possibility at this point in time.

But Take Two's financial report, which also includes revenue estimates for the next couple of years and, therefore, some relevant information regarding what games are in development and what's their projected release date, let gamers in on another Rockstar development. Downloadable content for the Xbox version of GTA IV is planned for release both in late 2008 and in 2009.

And Sam Houser told Edge a few things about how he envisioned such DLC: "In the game, you might be walking around and then someone will come up to you and say something like, 'Hey, I need your help', and you'll be like, 'What? this isn't a story mission', and he'll be like, 'You see that room up there? That's my wife and she's f****** [cheating with] some bloke, and I need you to go and do...' and this little story will unfold from there just randomly. The opportunity for things like that I would say is enormous. Really, though, for the downloadable content in general, it's about seeing how people get turned on by the game, and then we will tailor the production. We are very tuned into the reactions of the audience and we will go a certain way or another."

Houser insisted that all DLC packs would be good value for money and all gamers would want the extra content as it would tie seamlessly into the original game. With GTA IV more than a month away, we're glad to hear DLC is planned, but we'd rather play the damn game first, thank you.

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