Rumor: Rockstar North prepping new GTA for holiday 2009

by Jason Dobson on Jan 15th 2009 10:55PM

A sequel to a successful franchise, surely you jest!? Still, as much as another game being made in the Grand Theft Auto series is a no-brainer, if gossip found in the latest issue of Game Informer is to be believed, the inevitable follow up could be coming sooner than expected. The rumor mongers at GI write that Rockstar North is "already working" on the next GTA, with the game expected to light up cash registers during holiday 2009.

The magazine describes the as-yet-unannounced title as a "full retail game," rather than simply new DLC or a compilation of previously released downloadables. Still, juicy as this is, we can't help but find this rumor somewhat difficult to swallow given that nothing about the project has been so much as whispered before now. However, if true, it seems likely that the game would follow previous releases and adopt a subtitle similar to GTA: San Andreas or Vice City. How about Sesame Street? What's the hooker situation like over there?

Update: Rockstar denial.

Tags: grand-theft-auto, grand-theft-auto-5, gta, gta5, rockstar, rumor, sequel, take-two

Reader Comments (65)

I don't find it so hard to believe as they already have the new 3D engine built with GTA4. It's not like they are starting from scratch like they had to with that title.

Exactly, it was only a year between GTA:III and Vice City.

Uh....developing for PS2 vs developing for PS3 (which is hard enough) AND 360....

Yeah, rumor = fail

"Uh....developing for PS2 vs developing for PS3 (which is hard enough) AND 360...."

Since they now have a PS3 release under their belt along with a working engine, there won't be much of an issue. Just like every iteration of GTA3, there will be some engine tweaks but it's mostly just new content (art, sound, etc...)

Who knows? They could've been developing this for quite a while already. That combined with the game engine being ready to use could mean a new release in Fall 2009. Of course that excludes the expected delay for every GTA game. So Summer 2010 maybe?

For sure. They could have been developing GTA:X since well before April. That's two years in development on top of any spit balling that may have been done pre-GTA4.

Oh no, you said "fail," you're gonna go and hurt the rumor's feelings

Sorry y'all, I call BS on this one. A full featured "expansion" in the form of the second DLC, but not a full title. They may package the Lost and the Damned and the second DLC into a retail product, but come on...it's not going to happen in '09.

Why not? Vice City came out 1 year after GTA3. This would be coming out a year and a half after GTA4. It's not that much of a stretch.

i could see it being true since they just have to paste a new city on the engine they already created. i dont think creating another virtual city in a year and half's time is completely out of left field.

but at the same time, it could just be another DLC episode for after The Lost and The Damned. i remember Sony talking about DLC before which would lead me to believe that there is a strong chance there could be more DLC after the 360 exclusive one. either way, i don't really find it all that hard to believe, whatever the case.

People keep assuming that this would meen less than a year of development. Remember that GTA4 was 99 percent done and ready to be released in November 2007, but was pushed back due to programming for PS3 version. That means that by "holiday season 2009" they will have had over two years to make another one. Sequels(especially) come out all the time within that amount of time.

I don't know about hookers in Sesame Street, but the Cookie Monster has a serious problem of addiction.

"Chocolate chips don't do that to people!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUmYGLIubho

They have hookers. They even put a pimp on there. "How many times must i slap you before you act right? one smack! 2 smack! ah ah ah ah 2 smack!"

no wonder nobody likes homeless people...

"get it together grouch"

@Penguin Warlord : Nice copy from a Chappelle quote. he did the same joke in Killin 'em Softly c.2000

haha sweet ass chappelle...

RIP chappelle show, so damn funny while it lasted.

Hey alu,

It helps when you click on the damn link.

You=EPIC FAIL.

I call bullshit.

Madness?

[Cue in Joystiq's pit of death where we ban all the bots]

I don't know you would think they would wait so that people will buy the DLC, release the next iteration after that has been out for a while.

Why wait to sell $20+ DLC when you can sell a $60 game? Especially since only like 1/4th of the GTA4 owners will be buying the DLC.

yeah but the sooner they release it the less people buy the DLC i would assume

I don't think Rockstar cares too much since they probably already got their $50 million from MS heh.

I'm thinking that by "full retail game" they mean a packageable expansion ala Halo 3: Recon.

As much as I would like this to be true, the realistic side of me says otherwise. That does not mean I would not welcome one with open arms, cause I would. I just don't see that happening. Isn't GI notorious for passing along false rumors though?

It's possible. They probably have had been prepping since before 4 even came out. At least the story-line and setting anyway. The engine's there, and Rockstar isn't a small team of people, and they certainly don't lack the budget that can sometimes slow down production. But I guess we'll just see, won't we.

I almost certain this is fake. There is no way they're going to put out another GTA the very next year after the previous installment.

Cause that's never happened before.

It sounds possible. Considering they will be using the same engine and I imagine investors want another blockbuster this year. They've also done that in the past:

Grand Theft Auto III (2001)
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002)
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004)

Unless they make it as big as San Andreas, I guess that making a Vice City-like upgrade to GTA IV is not going to take them that long. They already got the next-gen engine.

lol at people even dreaming about believing this.

i think it's possible but not likely. when the next one does come about though i want to hear from a reviewer who played through the previous games. i read one guy talk about people gathering around bodies that got run over then an ambulance showing up like it hadn't happened in previous gta games.

I can't wait for the industry to line up and give it 10s all over again!

I'm a Wiifan myself, but I used I play vice city all the time on my bros ps2 and they should definately have a sequal with that map.

Possible if its another story line in Liberty City...but if they go to another city, it will be hard to beat the details they put in this one with such a short time frame.

If they're working on one we probably won't see it till early- mid '10 but I'm not buying it just yet.

put it in another country... or the future.... or the distant past.

I think the other country idea is actually pretty damn good. I think with your other 2 ideas it'd really borderline losing it's identity fully and being too much like some other game.

If it weren't some white bread country though, I'm sure you'd have people crying racism about something or other.

Three words: Grand Theft Hover-car

Three more words: Grand Theft Horse

I agree with what your saying about muddying the series by setting a game in the past/future... Although I still think a Blade Runner or Victorian England would be fun to play in... At the end of the day, I just want a change in sceanery.

A Blade Runner-esque GTA game would blow my fucking mind.

*prays for Vice City 2*

I WANT TOMMY TO REBUILD HIS EMPIRE!!!

Great mabey this one will be fun...

I agree with a lot of others here. More 80s music and neon colors please.

i'll take another los santos on the RAGE engine thank you very much. imagine the awesome-ness that would bring...

I'd also like to see a next-gen Vice City.

You'd be surprised about the hooker situation on Sesame Street. I mean we all know that the Count is really a pimp. "Bitch where it my money!? You've been late four times, I've been counting. How many times must I smack you before you act right? One *smack* Two *smack*. Two, two smacks. Hahahaha."

Perhaps.. I am skeptical but reading arguments on both sides.. its difficult to decide.

Yeah, on one hand it just seems that GTA IV came out and that another one coming so soon would be a little ridiculous and out of the question one would think.

On the other hand, the game was for the most part ready about six months before it was released. Yet was delayed because of PS3 development time. Also, they have the engine already, so creating a sequel wont be as time consuming.

So it may be plausible, it would be quite awesome if it did I must admit. I heard a rumor about maybe tokyo.. (probably not) but that would be incredible.

I know some folk at Rockstar North. They are definately working on something but so far details are being kept to a very small group of people. Internal rumour is it might be a sequel to Red Dead Revolver!!

It might be possible for Rockstar to have a new GTA by Xmas of 09, for the simple reason that they already have the engine. The reason GTAIV took so long to develop, is that they had to build the engine from the ground up. Once it's built though, you can take that engine and expand on it, at a much faster pace. The same thing EA does and the reason they churn out a Madden game every year.

So let's assume that GTAIV follows the path of GTAIII. We could say that Vice City is next. Hmm, maybe GTA: Return to Vice City? Can you imagine Vice City using the GTAIV engine? All that next-gen neon!

Rockstar would be smart to go down that route, since arguably Vice City is the most popular GTA game in the series. Plus we'd get more 80's music. How cool would that be? I just hope we get Airplanes and Jetski's. So ok, San Andreas would be next then and we'd see GTAV on whatever systems come out for the next-gen.

Never Gonna Give You Up coming on the radio during a 6-star car chase would be the most epic thing in the history of the Universe... ;-;

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Grand Theft Auto 5

Rumor: Rockstar North prepping new GTA for holiday 2009

Reader Comments (65)

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