GTA: Vice City Stories available for PlayStation 2 in March

by Christopher Grant { Feb 7th 2007 at 4:12PM }

Following GTA: Liberty City Stories' evolution from a PSP exclusive to a PlayStation 2 port -- and after popping up on the ESRB's ratings website -- a PS2 port of the PSP's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories seemed like a pretty safe bet. Sure, there was some scuttlebutt that it would remain a PSP exclusive, and the product listing mysteriously disappeared from PlayStation.com last week, but Rockstar has carjacked that rumor, '80s-style, announcing that GTA: VCS will be available in North America on March 6, 2007 and in Europe on March 9, 2007. No price for the PS2 release is listed, but when GTA: LCS made the jump to it's stationary big brother, it did so at the eminently reasonable price point of $20. With considerable new-gen competition, we can't imagine they'd opt to change that strategy now.

Tags: GTA, port, PS2, Rockstar, ViceCityStories

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Slaziman @ Feb 7th 2007 4:20PM

BANG BANG

Rockstar just killed the last reason for me to get a PSP!

Strangler @ Feb 7th 2007 4:21PM

I dont get why they port it to the ps2, I mean it sold pretty well on the psp just as lcs did. Did they really expect it to sell just as good as the sp2 gta games did which were exclusive with a completly different city and story and sold to a userbase multiple times larger than the psp's? Seriously what were they expecting?

Strangler @ Feb 7th 2007 6:34PM

oh and why does sony allow this? doesnt sony have the final say waht games get made or proted to their console? WHy does sony allwo competing products on their own platforms competing for shelf space? Like take tekken, they recently amde it for the ps3 download store, why do that and take awayf rom psp sales?

StReEtWaLkeR @ Feb 7th 2007 6:12PM

Yes I can't wait....this is great for me!!! PS2 4ever!!!

dis_guy @ Feb 7th 2007 4:28PM

I knew this would happen. This porting is why I no longer own a PSP.

Strangler @ Feb 7th 2007 4:30PM

but why does sony allow this and allow a game to compete with its own products?

StMadnes @ Feb 7th 2007 10:10PM

I knew it! Milk that cow, Sony!

required @ Feb 7th 2007 4:32PM

Slaziman, you sound quite daft.

Don't fall for all the FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) Nintendo spreads (via pseudo-fanboys and fauxnewsblogs), the truth is the PSP is a great system with tons of great games plus a lot more (video, music, pictures, rss, flash, web, etc).

ackmondual @ Feb 7th 2007 4:37PM

doesn't sound too bad. How much could Sony be losing if it doesn't sell on the PSP, but ppl still get it for PS2?

required @ Feb 7th 2007 4:37PM

Strangler,

I don't like gaming platforms that require being plugged into a television, I only like portable games, and I am not alone (millions of people prefer gaming untethered). Point being, not everyone shares my preference for portables, some people like playing games in front of their televisions (cluttering up their living rooms with ewaste). Hope that helps you understand.

NintendoFanbot @ Feb 7th 2007 4:40PM

Who's spreading FUD in this thread, #5?

Everything wrong with Sony has been inflicted by themselves. Nothing wrong with their products but they've been making fools of themselves lately.

For example:
"...(via pseudo-fanboys and fauxnewsblogs)..."

That sounds like something SONY did... oh wait, they DID!

Anyways, so how many GTAs is that this generation? 5? :P

I loved San Andreas.

Slaziman @ Feb 7th 2007 4:40PM

I've done my homework, and apart from a few games I ain't droppin the cash on the PSP, IMHO most of the games on it would be better off on a console, but meh that's just me huh? And I really don't give a shit about it's multimedia capacities, but again, that's just me.

Scott @ Feb 7th 2007 4:45PM

"...ome people like playing games in front of their televisions (cluttering up their living rooms with ewaste)..."
-required

Dude, you have some serious issues if you think a gaming console is cluttering up your living room with waste.

JD3 @ Feb 7th 2007 4:49PM

Talk about oversaturation of the market. Remember the days when a new GTA was a HUGE deal. People would be trying to figure where it would be taking place, what period of time it would be taking place in, etc. Now it's like "oh, new GTA, great" I'm sorry but I'm waiting for an actual new GTA, not a ported, half-assed sequel thats at least a year old.

why not the LS2/LS7? @ Feb 7th 2007 4:49PM

I'm going against the grain and saying good job Sony.

After buying LCS and trying to play it on that thing on the face of the PSP that you pretend to be a joystick, there was no way I'd buy Vice City Stories for PSP.

By bringing it out for PS2, you've made a sale from me you wouldn't have made otherwise.

Aex @ Feb 7th 2007 4:51PM

@Slaziman

If it really was a good enough reason for you to get a psp, you would have gotten one before today. Not every great game on psp is on ps2, and even tho some are, the psp has this thing called... portability.

I don't blame ya tho, $200 isn't a small amount to drop on a portable game system. I know my friends aren't waiting for more good games to get a PSP, during road trips they all just play mine. They are waiting for a price drop. I have about 4 friends all waiting for the drop to $150, not for the next great "non-ported" game.

Chris @ Feb 7th 2007 6:45PM

#8

Nicely done.

required @ Feb 7th 2007 4:57PM

I don't think you understand what FUD is NintendoFanbot. It is a strategy of disseminating negative (and vague) information on a competitor's product.

In reference to the PSP, it's usually along the lines that there are no good titles (fact: it has a plethora) or that it is slow loading (fact: very few titles are) or that it has no battery life (mine lasts longer than my DS phat).

Slaziman @ Feb 7th 2007 4:59PM

It wasn't defining, merely "tempting", I doubt I would've bought a PSP either way. As I said, the games are better off not being portable, IMHO

Seriously when I look at the top ranking PSP games I see shooters and racers EVERYWHERE, not to mention sports game. I don't want that shit, shooters are better on a console and even better on a PC, and I generally don't like racers (Mario Kart doesn't count as a racer xD)

You don't have to lecture me with what games don't fit in this genres and are pretty good, cus I know that, not worth my money though

required @ Feb 7th 2007 5:09PM

Slaziman,

Daxter is great as is Death Jr 2 (leaps and bounds fresher than Mario)

LocoRoco is a trip as is Mercury and I hear Lumines is fun.

Winning Eleven is the worlds best portable sports title.

And the list goes on and on way beyond shooters and racers. For example here is IGN's editors picks http://psp.ign.com/index/choice.html

Baby21 @ Feb 7th 2007 5:10PM

PSX's JRPG on PSP (3.10OA) is a godsend.
I have Saga Frontier, FFVII, and Lunar SSS

Slaziman @ Feb 7th 2007 5:18PM

Maybe you missed the last sentence in my post?

That's four games (Lumines and Mercury don't interest me though) because I said sport titles don't work for me.

I saw Winning Eleven first-hand, and this I didn't get from Internet FUD, the load times are horrible.

required @ Feb 7th 2007 5:27PM

Scott, all my old systems fit nicely in a small drawer and I can take them out and use them with ease. The same can't be said with consoles hence the ewaste comment. I look at a PS3 and wonder what will I do with it once I'm no longer using it? and if it is anything like my last console it would wind up in the garage as 'fill.

required @ Feb 7th 2007 5:33PM

Slaziman, how do you arrive at four? Maybe you should open your eyes a bit, here http://psp.ign.com/index/reviews.html

Note that there are a ton of titles that are neither shooters or racers.

Winning Eleven as with most games requires playing, not just seeing first hand. BTW it's load times have been fixed.

Slaziman @ Feb 7th 2007 5:45PM

You mentioned four :o yeah there are a ton of titles... sports titles, and I didn't go ahead and count them, but out of the editor's choice list, apart from the four you mentioned and not including both GTA's, there are maybe 5 other games that aren't shooters, racers, or sports? I didn't count them, but I think it's even less than 5

Roddie @ Feb 7th 2007 5:47PM

Right, now bring on GTA: San Andreas stories!

Evan @ Feb 7th 2007 5:48PM

Great! Now, if only they would port Daxter to PS2, I'll be happy!

Striderhayasa @ Feb 7th 2007 6:36PM

didn't rockstar say they weren't going to port it? What happened? Was it the usual "we can make a killing on PS2" reasoning or are they actually going to add content?

Rob @ Feb 7th 2007 6:42PM

The game sold even less than LCS, something like around 250k, as LCS did something around 500k, probably a bit more. For a GTA game, VCS completely bombed. I actually called this well before the game even released.

I'm sure it'll manage to get aother 400-500k on PS2.
Probably the last GTA game PSP will ever see.

Shane Killen @ Feb 7th 2007 9:12PM

What are you talking about? You're right about Vice City Stories only selling about 250k on the PSP, but Liberty City Stories (PSP) sold over a million copies.

Maybe people saw what Rockstar did first time around - release it on PSP and over charge at $50, then a few months later, release it on PS2 at a value $20 so you can play on your bigger TV.
Did anyone really believe Rockstar was going to keep it exclusive to the PSP?
That's my guess as to why it didn't sell so well (at least compared to the first one) people know they can just wait a few months and save some money by buying the PS2 version.

The PSP is struggling and is in desperate need of exclusives, so this is yet another blow to the already failing (though not quite failed) PSP.

avtiger27 @ Feb 7th 2007 9:06PM

Less people bought VCS because after what happened last time they, like me, decided to just wait for a version you could actually use two sticks with.

Strangler @ Feb 8th 2007 3:13AM

"Seriously when I look at the top ranking PSP games I see shooters and racers EVERYWHERE, not to mention sports game. I don't want that shit, shooters are better on a console and even better on a PC, and I generally don't like racers (Mario Kart doesn't count as a racer xD)"

than why is it that those are the only games that sell on a psp?

from:
http://www.pspfanboy.com/2007/02/06/the-trials-and-tribulations-of-tiki-games-part-2/

"But for what I did right there were also things that were naïve. It's easy to convince yourself "I'll create an original IP for the PSP that focuses on an untapped market – the RTS. It's huge on the PC – let's try to bring them over by creating an RTS from the ground-up for the PSP. And we'll also be relatively low-cost in terms of overall budget. Surely publishers will appreciate that!"

In reality, while myself and my team had been in the industry for a long time, and shipped a number of titles, as a new start-up we're unproven from a publisher's viewpoint. And an original IP isn't nearly as powerful as having a license for some big property.

So to step into this with "I'll create a new IP in the RTS genre for the PSP. We'll then create a solid proof-of-concept playable demo. How can it go wrong?" Well, toward the end of 2006 I did a lot of traveling (and have done similar this year so far), and while Galaxy's End was well-received at most publishers, we're still a new company with no shipped titles, and the RTS genre doesn't equate to guaranteed success on a handheld.

We had some extremely positive meetings with publishers – they felt the game looked sharp, that we had conquered any control doubts (meaning the game does play well on a handheld), and they liked the overall game concept. Then the following week was something along the lines of "marketing finds it too risky." Lots of temporary elated moments followed by extended periods of frustration."

explain that to me if games other than shooters adn sport games are so needed ande succesful for the psp.