As part of its recent quarterly earnings announcement, Take-Two announced that Grand Theft Auto IV has sold ten million copies through Aug. 16. These sales helped lead the company to a staggering $433.8 million in revenue in the third quarter, over twice as much as the same quarter last fiscal year.

For comparison, the PS2 version of GTA: San Andreas sold 12 million copies worldwide. During a conference call, the company said it would continue to promote GTA IV through the holiday season, and that it expected lifetime sales for the game to "track well ahead of any previous GTA title."

Take-Two Interactive's third-quarter fiscal results have proven that crime really does pay, with law-breaking blockbuster Grand Theft Auto IV leading sales, alongside Top Spin 3 and Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution. The three-month financial period, ended July 31, 2008, saw the publisher rake in net revenues of $433.8 million, nearly double the $206.4 million it earned during the same, GTA-less quarter of 2007.

If you're reading this paragraph, we can only assume that you're keen on seeing even more numbers. Like $51.8 million, Take-Two's net income for the quarter and a considerable improvement on last year's net loss of $58.5 million. In terms of notable expenses, Take-Two burned through $12.6 million in "stock-based compensation," $1.8 million for "business reorganization" and $5.4 million for "professional fees and legal expenses," primarily aimed at warding off the advances of EA. Finally, net revenues for Take-Two's first three quarters in total were just over $1.2 billion, versus $689.2 million for the same period a year ago.

In summary: Grand Theft Auto IV = money.

A recent study conducted by Nielsen Games has uncovered an unsavory and alarming new link in the video game industry's ever-tightening chain around our nation's youth. It was found that 17% of respondents in the survey who had purchased a copy of the popular role-model pummeling game, "Grand Theft Auto IV," were between the ages of seven and sixteen. The crime glorification simulation, which imparts "gamer points" for beating innocent police officers to death with decapitated prostitute bodies, was rated "M" for "Mature."

The most distressing news lies not in the fact that 61% of impressionable youths had been tricked into purchasing the games themselves by slick marketing and peer pressure, but the shocking revelation that 39% had been aided by someone else -- in 80% of these cases, parents themselves had thrust their child's ripe brain beneath the industry's oppressive mallet.

Speaking exclusively to Joystiq, renowned child psychologist Dr. Alphred Larmist described this turn of events as "the ultimate betrayal." According to him, parents could be the most dangerous conduit of pixelated poison. "Parents getting involved is the last thing we need," Larmist said. "If they take an active role in what entertainment their children partake in, this is the sort of disaster that could happen. Next thing you know, they're determining what's appropriate for the kids and going out and buying Grand Theft Auto. They're supposed to be on our side."

Dr. Larmist vowed he would take up the campaign to keep parents and their influence away from children. "If nothing is done, these video gamers will reduce our society to naught but chainsaws having bloody sex with each other."

So, who's very excited (or surprised) by confirmation that Rockstar's go-anywhere, shoot-anyone crime caper is coming to the PC? Well, the folks at Rockstar, obviously. "We are very excited to be releasing the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV," said Rockstar Games founder Sam Houser. "The whole team is dedicated to bringing an amazing gaming experience to the PC. The game looks and plays beautifully on PC and we can't wait for people to play it."

People can expect to start playing Grand Theft Auto IV, along with its "newly expanded multiplayer" modes, on November 18th if they live in North America, and November 21st if they live in Europe.

Aside from spontaneous automobile theft and an abundance of paper lanterns, we really don't know what we can expect to find in Rockstar's DS downsizing of its infamous crime caper, Grand Theft Auto. If an alleged survey sent in to UGO's Games Blog is to be believed -- and let's be clear, this "if" is large enough to trample just about any virtual metropolis -- Chinatown Wars will have plenty of features to clutter up the back of its tiny box.

An open world with changing weather and traffic patterns? Check. A "mature" storyline featuring a "young gang soldier involved in the internal power struggle for control of his gang?" Check. Multiplayer modes, 70+ missions and stylus-based minigames, "such as assembling a sniper rifle?" Check. Truthfulness of survey and its claim that said features are connected to Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars? We'll have to check on that. But purely out of interest, does this sound like a portable GTA you'd want to play?

[Thanks, Kareem]

Grand Theft Auto IV's Thailand distributor, New Era Interactive Media, is asking retailers to pull the title after an 18-year-old said he was inspired by the game to rob and murder a 54-year-old cab driver. According to police investigator Veeravit Pipattanasak (via Reuters), the young man wanted to find out if it was as easy to rob a taxi in real life as it was in the game. After the cab driver fought back, the young man stabbed him to death.

Thailand's Culture Ministry plans to use the incident as an opportunity to try and regulate violent video games. As for the 18-year-old, if found guilty, he faces the possibility of lethal injection as punishment for the murder.

[Via GI.biz]

The Advertising Standards Authority of the Ü-K said it ain't seein' nothing wrong with Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto IV ads across its domain. GI.biz reports the organization received complaints from ten viewers about the violence in the ad, while seven others objected to the time the commercial aired. The ASA stated the ad was slotted in appropriate times and it saw no "direct harmful influence on children or young people" in the commercial.

The UK advert for GTA IV was very similar to the US version ... just with a British voice over at the end and some squiggly mark in front of the price tag that looks like this: £. We've been told it means lbs., but that seems silly, because pounds are a measure of weight. Anyway, the commercial can be found after the break for a refresher.

Rockstar has created a placeholder site for the semi-recently announced Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars which may be giving away a little more than it had planned. Along with the usual DS logo branding and ERSB "RP" badge is ... the official Nintendo W-Fii Connection emblem. It certainly looks like it's intended to be there, but we won't know for certain whether the first GTA on Ninty's dual-screen handheld will have proper online play until Rockstar says something – and that could be a while. In the meantime, we can only wait and dream of setting Liberty City ablaze with other DS users over the internet.

We already know that Nintendo DS is taking up residence in Liberty City thanks to GTA: Chinatown Wars, but what about GTA on Wii? Reggie wants it, gamers want it, but will Take-Two ever deliver? Speaking to GameDaily about any such plans, Take-Two CEO Ben Feder had this to say: "We know the Wii pretty well. We're building up assets to develop for the Wii and we're excited about its growth," but added, "I can't comment on GTA specifically on the Wii."

Something about another of Feder's comments seemed vaguely familiar when compared to those of Nintendo's Fils-Amie, who's said he'd welcome a GTA game on Wii as long as it's developed specifically for the platform. "Our goal is to be the most creative and innovative company in the industry," Feder said, further explaining, "You don't get there by just porting and dumping games on the shelves. You get there by looking at the platform and creating games specifically for that platform." Sure sounds like what Reggie's asking for to us.

We were just a ... Wii bit shocked when a new Grand Theft Auto was announced for Nintendo DS and not the Big N's wildly popular home console. Still, it's no doubt a coup, but what about a proper Wii installment in the series?

MTV Multiplayer asked Nintendo of America prez Reggie Fils-Amie just that. When prodded on the likelihood that a DS version of GTA might lead to a greater possibility of GTA for Wii, Reggie stated that "GTA on the Wii is all based on what Rockstar and Take-Two want to do," adding, "From our standpoint, if they build a bottoms-up game that takes advantage of what we do well, I'd love to see it on the platform."

We're pretty sure Reggie meant a GTA that's built from the ground up for Wii. Or perhaps he was just getting into the GTA swing of things? If so, naughty Reggie!

Who knew that Pulitzer Prize winning authors were taking their hard-earned awards and combining it with writing skill to... play Grand Theft Auto IV? It's not like they can be accused of slacking, having won a Pulitzer and all. Junot Diaz who won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao spent some quality time ripping off cars and robbing his fellow Liberty City denizens, but in the end he says the game isn't worthy of the praise that's being spoon-fed to the masses.

Go ahead and Google: "Connecticut State Senator Gayle Slossberg." Now, just imagine how different that page is going to look once news spreads that Sen. Slossberg (D) wants confirmation of the rape scene in Grand Theft Auto IV. The New Haven Advocate reports that Slossberg admits she's never played GTA IV and still needs to confirm the "rumored" rape scene. Apparently, that's not going to stop her from being afraid of the game corrupting children, thus prompting her to introduce legislation requiring better warning labels.

We're not going out on a limb and saying there isn't a rape scene buried under all that code -- remember what happened last time? But Slossberg does have a serious problem. She seems a bit confused as to what to put on these warning labels, telling the newspaper: "I mean what would it say? 'This game will make you a sociopath'?"

Best of luck, Sen. Slossberg! A Google search of your name will never be the same again.

[Via GamePolitics]

The artist known as Pixeloo delivers once again with his "real" rendition of Grand Theft Auto IV antihero Niko Bellic. Thankfully, Niko's character design is that of a standard human, so we don't get the abomination of Pixeloo's not-safe-for-sanity "Real Mario."

The artist says he did the piece for Official Playstation Magazine UK's latest issue. Another impressive piece by Pixeloo, and unlike Real Mario, the Real Niko won't cause us to wake up screaming for two weeks and shudder every time we even think about the portly plumber.

Proficient purveyor of sales data, Chart-Track, has informed Eurogamer that the Xbox 360 has established an 18% UK sales lead over the PlayStation 3, following the launch of Grand Theft Auto IV. Rockstar's open-world crime romp is said to have sold over 1.3 million copies in the UK, with 57% of sales in the first four weeks going to the Xbox 360. That obviously leaves 72% 12% 43% on the PlayStation 3.

While the sales traction gained in GTA IV's wake has been more dramatic for the Xbox 360, year-to-date sales still place the PlayStation 3 ahead in the UK. According to Chart-Track's 2008 figures, there still remains a 10% gap between the two rivals.