Rockstar: No GTA IV follow-up coming before holidays '09
by Ludwig Kietzmann 
{ Jan 19th 2009 at 2:26PM }
Speaking to Kotaku, a Rockstar rep insisted that there was "no truth" to the reports, relegating the whole thing to the realms of wishful thinking. With the second episode of downloadable content scheduled to arrive towards the end of the year, we're much more likely to see a bonus-packed "Game of the Year" re-release of GTA IV. We're sure somebody gave it a Game of the Year award.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Shadow Hog @ Jan 19th 2009 2:31PM
You forgot to close an italics tag.
Moptimus Slime (Leader of the Ryan Scott Defense Force, A Wurr? My Burr) @ Jan 19th 2009 2:32PM
does that mean new GTA as in GTA V or no GTA period?
Moptimus Slime (Leader of the Ryan Scott Defense Force, A Wurr? My Burr) @ Jan 19th 2009 2:33PM
uh Ludwig, whats with the italics?
Osman @ Jan 19th 2009 2:39PM
that was odd, italics are gone now
Haggard @ Jan 19th 2009 4:03PM
They, unlike us proles, have an edit button.
Henry @ Jan 19th 2009 2:33PM
Well duh, they aren't gonna be able to make an entire GTA that quickly. Even if it was scheduled for 2009 Holidays, it would probably be pushed back anyway.
Readme @ Jan 19th 2009 2:38PM
If anyone seriously believed this rumor, then that person is a fine candidate for a Darwin Award.
roboluke @ Jan 19th 2009 3:53PM
I don't think that believing rumors is fatal (unfortunately).
Vcize @ Jan 19th 2009 3:54PM
I didn't believe it, but I think your statement far exceeds the stupidity of anyone believing the rumor, considering they had churned out GTA sequels quicker than that several times before.
SoCoolCurt (PSN: KillaKornbread - XBL: SoCoolCurt) @ Jan 19th 2009 5:15PM
i didnt feel it was out of the realm of possibility looking at their history and based on the fact that they already have a very solid engine to build another game upon. dont tell me you dont remember Vice City and San Andreas already?
Readme @ Jan 20th 2009 1:26PM
Sorry bout those hurt feelings.
Lord Negatron @ Jan 19th 2009 2:39PM
Well, no matter. They'd best be working on GTA London sooner than later. A Guy Ritchie vision of London, complete with tea, guns, and incompetent hooligans.
Brucie_K @ Jan 19th 2009 2:40PM
Don't forget the chavs.
The Espiritu (Somebody get me a tie! And it sure as hell better be red!) @ Jan 19th 2009 2:40PM
GTA5: GOTY 2010?
Inect @ Jan 19th 2009 4:04PM
"GTA5" ^^^ name fail ^^^
Haggard @ Jan 19th 2009 4:04PM
Very likely. GTA sells like hotcakes and if they don't get another one out in 2010, they would probably only manage 2 this console generation.
The Espiritu (Somebody get me a tie! And it sure as hell better be red!) @ Jan 19th 2009 5:00PM
GTAV: GOTY 2010?
There.
Its that any better Inect?
Inect @ Jan 20th 2009 1:50PM
nope still said 5.
Ashkental @ Jan 19th 2009 2:50PM
Does anyone still remembered this DLC or is just me that doesn't care anymore?
Lord Negatron @ Jan 19th 2009 3:27PM
I don't care somewhat, due to the fact it is centered around motorcycles...
Unless they tweaked the game mechanics, riding a bike was one of the more frustrating things i found in GTAIV. Hey i got it! For DLC, lets focus on a "Biker Gang!"...(oh jezus).
SoCoolCurt (PSN: KillaKornbread - XBL: SoCoolCurt) @ Jan 19th 2009 5:32PM
i was gonna re-buy GTA IV on 360 if the DLC looked good enough, but it hasn't excited me. maybe the 2nd set of DLC will do it for me.
plus i tried to play GTA IV the other day to get the Trophies but i just really wasn't having fun with it anymore.
B3astofthe3ast @ Jan 19th 2009 2:56PM
Rockstar, all you have to do is remake San Andreas with the GTA4 engine, maybe add a few extra missions, and you'll have my money.
DGautreau86 @ Jan 19th 2009 3:05PM
I will pay for whatever they make.
Isaac @ Jan 19th 2009 3:07PM
Sweet! Now killzone 2 will be GOTY!!!
sk8monroe81 @ Jan 19th 2009 4:45PM
modern warfare 2 ?
gran turismo 5 if it drops ??
a mario/zelda game ??
halo 3 expansion pack ?
Blazur @ Jan 19th 2009 5:00PM
I believe this title is destined for StarCraft 2.
Phantom @ Jan 19th 2009 5:22PM
I don't hate Halo, but I think an expansion pack doesn't deserve GOTY. Maybe expansion of the year...
Mr Khan @ Jan 19th 2009 7:19PM
Let's just see what Nintendo has up their sleeves this year, as well as if Gran Turismo 5 makes it in time, and if Microsoft's promise of "surprises" wasn't all talk
sk8monroe81 @ Jan 19th 2009 9:55PM
if gt5prologue sold 8 million copies last year it would have been a GOTY contender because it was still a game.
more a pre-expansion of gt5.
halo:odst will be boxed also and will probably sell a lot of copies (5million - 8million) and how is it less a game than prologue?
CH3BURASHKA @ Jan 19th 2009 3:12PM
Is the picture supposed to be homosexual?
Deeznuts420 @ Jan 19th 2009 3:24PM
only if he said "it was "this" big cousin", then yes.
Strategy_Panda (The Sandwich Poisoning Crew) @ Jan 19th 2009 3:27PM
that picture told me it thinks your super cute
zymman @ Jan 19th 2009 3:25PM
You guys really think you're something for not putting GTA IV on your game of the year list. I know I'm basically wasting my time by typing this, but there are no bonus points in life for trying to make a statement. Few developers are able to come close to Rockstar North's level of quality and originality and the fact that even non-game critics (like Peter Travers) recognize that and you don't doesn't make you appear very in touch with your own chosen medium. Fable 2's mechanics are laughable compared to that of GTA. Come on, everything you eat makes you fat, except celery which makes you thin, but running all over the land with heavy weapons strapped to your back has no effect at all. That's brilliant game design.
bearcall @ Jan 19th 2009 3:35PM
well said, you didn't waste your time typing that.
i continue to read joystiq on a daily basis because it's simply a good source for gaming news. but i rely on this site for the FACTS and the FACTS alone.
their GOTY choices and other past articles based on opinion have only shown me that their tastes do not match my tastes, or the tastes of the majority of gamers, and that i should take most of what they say with a grain of salt.
Lord Negatron @ Jan 19th 2009 3:40PM
Call me biased, which this statement is, but being from New York and playing a game that brought so much of its likeness alive(especially at night), makes this game #1 in my eyes.
roboluke @ Jan 19th 2009 3:56PM
Yeah, that's the real magic of R* games -- managing to evoke the character of a city. That's why I (and seemingly many others) enjoyed San Andreas more than IV. Stepping out of your house into the heat haze in LA, driving around in the thick fog of San Fran, that's what kept me coming back to the game. The gangbanger story is just the skeleton to me.
required @ Jan 19th 2009 4:07PM
I never played San Andreas and can not since my PS3 doesn't support backwards compatibility. Hopefully someday Sony will make this possible in a firmware update but I doubt it. Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories are great. Maybe San Andreas Stories could happen.
Haggard @ Jan 19th 2009 4:08PM
Wow, how very dare they!
Having a different opinion to yours like that.. how low can they go?
You know, they did respond to the tidal wave of cretinous letters (of a similar format to yours) as to why GTA wasn't on the list. This included a number of key points about its gameplay, which I can easily agree with, plus the fact that just because it's not on the top ten doesn't mean they hated it.
GTA4 was good. But it could have been so much more.
zymman @ Jan 19th 2009 5:03PM
The brilliance of GTA is that it could always be "so much more." It sparks something in your imagination that makes you think of all the possibilities such an open platform creates. I'll even admit that the game could use a few tweaks here and there. However, as in life, spending too much time thinking about what could have been is only ignoring the majesty of what is before you. A beautiful city captured in all (or at least) most of it's glory, where every sound you hear is accompanied by a visual prop that matches it. If you hear a jack hammer, surely there are road workers somewhere near. Street preachers and park instrumentalist can be seen. People are out for jogs, buying food from venders, going to comedy shows and bowling alleys. You have meaningful relationships in the game (not just with girls, but with friends to) and the dialogs between you seem to never run dry. That may not do it for everyone and that doesn't bother me, but as a critic you have a responsibility to think beyond just what does it for you. To ignore the magnificent accomplishment of GTA IV (a city packed to it's gills that unfolds seamlessly before you) is either an unfortunate oversight or someone trying to make a statement. With such a diverse group of people compiling this list, call me cynical for believing the latter.
Haggard @ Jan 19th 2009 6:17PM
That's the most pretentious argument ever.
This song I wrote is so brilliant, not because of what I did play, but what I (italics tag) didn't play.
While GTA might have had a fantastic city, there's very little impetus to explore it, the missions are repetitive, controls are sluggish and unsatisfying and the plot tries so hard to seem like a movie that it just ends up inheriting all the stereotypical traits. The friends system was not fulfilling, it was annoying. While I thought some of the characters were kind of funny, I didn't feel a connection to any of them, or feel remotely sympathetic of Niko whenever he lost Kate/Roman or made some tragic philosophy over his life.
GTA quite probably has the best realised city ever, but it doesn't connect you with it in the same way Mafia or Vice City did. If I'm allowed to dislike the game, why aren't Joystiq?
Readme @ Jan 20th 2009 1:40PM
Haggard--
"While GTA might have had a fantastic city, there's very little impetus to explore it"
I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to speak for yourself on that one. I realize that you can find others who would agree with that statement, but I can also find a great many people who suffer from poverty of imagination / short attention span.
000000 @ Jan 20th 2009 3:33PM
I'm agreeing with zymman. I've played every 3D GTA game through to the end. Sure GTA4 may have less "bells and whistles" than San Andreas. BUT,... there is no game that has a more realistic environment(city). Period. Oblivion? Please. Fallout(3)? Boring. I can't relate to fantasy lands but I can relate to a real city. Especially one modeled after NY. And I don't even live there. But have visited.
The city is the star in GTA 4. It's beautiful and dense. It's a city simulator that lets you go buck wild. Multiplayer is a blast when you get a bunch of people who know how to play. GTA 4 had to be made and R* made it almost flawlessly IMHO. Would I like some San Andreas elements to make it into the next GTA? Sure. But as it stand GTA4 is IMHO the most involving video game I've played. And yes a big part of that is the graphics. There are a million nooks and crannies in GTA4 that you can "discover".
required @ Jan 19th 2009 4:00PM
So that DS china thing isn't a new GTA?
Ludwig Kietzmann @ Jan 19th 2009 4:15PM
Good point. Hopefully it's clearer now.
(You mean "Chinatown Wars.") :)
Anticrawl @ Jan 19th 2009 4:02PM
How about no more GTA games ever? I got suckered into buying GTA IV despite telling myself I knew it was going to be a huge waste of money. Turns out it is just a carbon copy of another GTA game with the majority of the fun etched out of the game and annoying man dates added. The multiplayer and co-op was really fun for the first 24 hours then the game was banished to it's limited edition box again and has been collecting dust ever sense.
Neuromancer @ Jan 19th 2009 4:14PM
Agreed, that game felt like a chore and was the most disappointing game of the year as far as I'm concerned.
sk8monroe81 @ Jan 19th 2009 4:47PM
agreed.
Anticrawl @ Jan 19th 2009 5:05PM
Some of the "missions" were fun but the vast majority of them were a chore. I felt as though I was a child again and my parents saying, "If you don't eat your veggies/clean your room you'll have to play GTA IV."
Anticrawl @ Jan 19th 2009 5:06PM
Or, "Finish your GTA IV or no desert/go to bed hungry."
Leo McKelvin @ Jan 19th 2009 5:49PM
It was very tedious indeed. It felt more like the sims than the other gta games i had played.