14 DAY TRIAL // Take Two is one of the most popular game publishers out there, releasing hit titles such as Grand Theft Auto IV or Bioshock. But popularity doesn't always pay off, because the company has recently seen stock prices fall on account of the recent recession, which, although it seems to be more gentle with the gaming industry, did leave its marks.
This is the reason why the company has its eyes turned to one of the most profitable franchises in the portfolio, Grand Theft Auto, which currently has under development two DLC (Downloadable Content) packs, for the Xbox 360 version of GTA IV, and a Nintendo DS title called Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars.
Although not a lot of information has been leaked about these upcoming releases, Take Two chairman, Strauss Zelnick, revealed a few facts about the current situation of these projects, which might help the stock price of his company improve. When asked about the current GTA IV DLC situation, Zelnick declared that "It's close to being complete," but also added, "Downloadable content is a big undertaking. It is important to be really special," statements which might hint to a possible delay of these expansions.
Let's not forget that, according to one of the developers of GTA IV, Dan Houser, the upcoming DLC will surely arrive in the current quarter, which spans from November to the end of January. This has also been backed up by Microsoft UK boss, Stephen McGill, who hinted that the experience would be very original and a significant addition to the great game that is GTA IV.
In regard to the DS exclusive GTA Chinatown Wars, Zelnick only said that it would feature the highly debated drug dealing minigame and offered quite a big period in which we might expect the title to be launched. DS gamers might get their open world sandbox game at the end of January, but no later than April. Quite a long timeline but official announcements from Take Two will surely precede the official launch.
Let's just hope that these two releases will help the game publisher because the company has always offered us great titles, and it would be a pity if the recession took its toll on it.