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Grand Theft Auto V delayed, due September 17

Rockstar Games delays upcoming Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 open-world game four months for extra polish; no mention of Wii U or PC versions.

412 Comments

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Grand Theft Auto V has been delayed and will hit store shelves September 17, Rockstar Games announced today. The game was previously targeted to launch sometime this spring for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Explaining the delay, Rockstar said the extra time will allow the company to polish the game further.

No Caption Provided

"We know this is about four months later than originally planned and we know that this short delay will come as a disappointment to many of you, but, trust us, it will be worth the extra time," the company said in a statement.

"GTAV is a massively ambitious and complex game and it simply needs a little more polish to be of the standard we and, more importantly, you require."

Notably absent from Rockstar's announcement of the GTAV release date today was mention of a PC or Wii U version of the game. The company previously said these versions were "up for consideration." Grand Theft Auto IV originally launched only for Xbox 360 and PS3, but was later made available on PC.

GTAV was announced in October 2011, and a teaser trailer that followed in November confirmed that the game will be set primarily in present-day Los Santos, a fictional town modeled on Los Angeles. Rockstar has also said that GTAV boasts the largest scope of any installment in the franchise to date.

The GTAV game world is reportedly bigger than Red Dead Redemption, GTA: San Andreas, and GTAIV combined.

GTAV features three protagonists, making it the first title in the series to tell its primary story through multiple characters. However, it is not an entirely novel idea for the franchise. GTAIV focused its narrative on the story of Niko Bellic, but ensuing downloadable expansions depicted Liberty City from the viewpoints of two additional characters.

GTAV will have some big shoes to fill. Its predecessor, GTAIV, was a massive success for Rockstar and Take-Two. The game has shipped over 25 million copies, placing it among the top-performing games of all time. In total, the Grand Theft Auto franchise itself has shipped over 125 million copies.

Entertainment Design and Research analyst Jesse Divnich said in November that he thinks GTAV has the potential to sell north of 25 million copies during its first 12 months on the market.

For more on GTAV, check out GameSpot's video breakdown of the game's second trailer (below), as well as all previous coverage.

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AtomicBaconBits

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@Venatorcruiser You can't seriously be that stupid.

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emandanijeldax

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@AtomicBaconBits @Venatorcruiser No, but he can be THAT funny -.-

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Jonno621

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@SIDEFX1 Yeah, saw it coming. It's a bummer but not necessarily a bad thing.

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Thyasianman

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@Jonno621 @SIDEFX1 I don't blame them at all because they are dealing with such a huge game that it would be so easy to forget some bugs. I just want this GTA to be the best one yet, and I'm sure Rockstar will oblige me :D

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deactivated-6127ced9bcba0

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I feel bad for the employees at Rockstar. Eight more months of being treated like garbage in order to make GTAV amazing.

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LE5LO

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@airshocker Brings E.A to mind, those guys used to take 'crunch' to a new level. Let's hope we don't see any 'Angry Rockstar employee wife' articles published because of this one. xD

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Lord_Python1049

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Yep, I guessed it and I was right. Rockstar are perfectionists and that's a good thing.

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itchyflop

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Rock star know what they re doing, simply put i cant wait its gonna be better than losing your virginity for the 1st time, only this time it ll take longer to finish and looks better, and hey if rock star need a few more weeks to "polish" their trophy wife so be it !! CANNOT WAIT

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CTR360

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rockstar rulles never dissapoing the fans i cant wait for GTA V

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Superzone

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Edited By Superzone

This was actually really unexpected. Rockstar always releases their games in May..

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Ice-Cube

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Edited By Ice-Cube

@Superzone Actually they don't, remember GTA IV? Was slated to come out October 16 2007 but they said due to technological problems we are delaying it to April 2008, which it came out April 29.

I saw this coming by a long shot. It's fine since we should be used to it by now. More time, more polish.

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Lord_Python1049

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@Superzone I'm thinking this will scare the hell out of COD and Battlefield =p

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tightwad34

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Edited By tightwad34

When they say trust us, it's going to be worth the wait, I do. It's no big deal to me because there is plenty out there to keep me busy.

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tommygun6644

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Cops and crooks!

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bloody-hell

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My only interest in this game lies in the PC version and only if it doesn't require Games for Windows Live or their Rockstar Launcher, no external account registration, is DRM free and playable offline - anything other than that and they won't get a sale here.

If that means another year of development time after the console release, so be it, I can wait.

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sanechupp

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Rockstar does deliver a polished crafted game. They need to have dlc on a disc like the last game. I'd be satisfied if it looks as good as Red Dead Redemption

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LE5LO

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@sanechupp Good call, but their last game was Max Payne 3. We all know you meant 'Undead Nightmare' though. ;)

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Keitha313

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Edited By Keitha313

This is them wanting to build hype far as I'm concerned.

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tightwad34

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@Keitha313 They don't need any extra hype. The game is already going to sell at least 10 million, and I can guarantee that.

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Thyasianman

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@tightwad34 @Keitha313 I have no doubt that the game will surpass all COD records, and it will become the biggest selling game of all time.

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Bowser05

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Edited By Bowser05

If this ends up anywhere near as good as RDR I will be all over this.

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Lotus-Edge

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Edited By Lotus-Edge

R*'s never disappointed me so far....

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franizarduy

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Something died inside of me.....…… oh …no ........ Wait! ..... It was a fart......

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hystavito

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Edited By hystavito

@Loqtus Just keep in mind that it doesn't necessarily mean they are going to polish and make the game better. When was the last time you saw a game company announce a delay and say "hey we are delaying our game, not to make it better, but because we messed up...." ? :)

I'm quite certain that many times we've been lied to about why a game was delayed :).

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Loqtus

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@hystavito Fair point, but I do live in hope that the delay is for the customer to have a better end product maybe thats naive but I'm really excited for GTA5 for me the series is one of the best out there!....So I live in hope.

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shansss123

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they want to release it for next gen consoles also so much greedy

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shansss123

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Rockstar is the most greedy company


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tightwad34

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@shansss123 No, they are not even close the that.

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LE5LO

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Edited By LE5LO

@Scorchstar @tightwad34 - In @shansss123 defence, the overseas shipping rates in the Rockstar website store borders on being criminally inflated. eg. if I wanted to buy a bar of soap, dice and playing cards from Rockstar the shipping alone would cost around US$50 to send to Australia. So frustrating how expensive it is. When most Americans would charge me around US$5-10 that stuff on Ebay. ;)

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Scorchstar

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@shansss123 If a developer is delaying a game, that actually costs them money, not making more money. They are taking time to perfect it.

Troll, begone!

3 • 
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AtomicBaconBits

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Edited By AtomicBaconBits

Hearing that a big Rockstar game will be delayed is like hearing that the sky is blue.

I can't see how anyone could be surprised by this news.

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Tsuchikage

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Take all the time you need, Rockstar. GTAV is going to be amazing.

2 • 
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alenth

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@PurePropaganda some people said the same about Diablo3 and you can see the result now lol.

2 • 
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yavix

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September isn't that long to wait. My only problem would be if they make it next gen. I won't be able to play it for a year at the least. I refuse to be pushed into buying a new console, just for GTAV. I'll wait till some other worthy games come out that will make my next gen purchase worth it.

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Symbiote_Venom

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Edited By Symbiote_Venom

No Surprise Here. Knew it was coming

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Morde10668

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I knew it.

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TheOnlyConan

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They will not admit to having it on PC until after they sell it on consoles. They are hoping you will buy it twice (considering most PC gamers have a console as well). Face it. If done right on the PC, it will be like a whole different game (GTA IV with modds/high res texture packs/ENB is on a whole different level) . Not to mention the mods that would add content.

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TruthTellers

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I guess Rockstar looked at where they were with the game and didn't believe they could make it flawlessly by May, so they gave themselves more time. Believe me, Rockstar wants to cash in on this cash cow ASAP, but they don't want to upset their core audience, as that never turn out well. Just ask Bioware.

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mrklorox

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What a mistake. This game better be multigenerational because the delay will seriously cut into my budget for a new console at the end of the year. GTA5 is the only game I was looking forward to this year. This really pisses me off.

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Loqtus

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@mrklorox would you rather them put out a shitty unfinished product???

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mrklorox

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@Loqtus @mrklorox If it's still a "shitty unfinished product" at this point, 4 extra months of polish won't save it. However I'm certain that's not the case.

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Loqtus

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@mrklorox @Loqtus True but the GTA series has not let me down before so I dont believe it will start now!.... fingers crossed!

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furqan2006

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by looks of the comments below, there's lots of PC gamers, you know Rockstar Games, they're gonna release it on PC probably in December

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mrklorox

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@furqan2006 Not a chance it'll be out any earlier than 6 months after the console releases.

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furqan2006

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@mrklorox @furqan2006 remember GTA4 and even San Andreas, both of those games took a little over 6 months to be released on PC

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furqan2006

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@mrklorox @furqan2006 true, lol thats not what pc gamers wanna hear though.

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mrklorox

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@furqan2006 @mrklorox Exactly. Nothing would be more impossible than a GTA port coming out before that amount of time has passed. Spring 2014 at the earliest.

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suhinho

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@PurePropaganda yeh but make sure to not starve have some appetisers while you wait :)

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somebody337

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Edited By somebody337

I knew it lol Easy hype ftw

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