Do you want more Grand Theft Auto? Well, that's what Todd Mitchell, analyst for Kaufman Bros. Equity Research wants. Nay, expects! Speaking to GI.biz, Mitchell stated that he's anticipating two more downloadable GTA IV episodes to launch after The Ballad of Gay Tony. "It's been indicated to me that would be the case," he said. Additionally, with Microsoft's exclusivity deal covering only two episodes, these DLC add-ons may also appear on PS3.

In addition to new GTA IV episodes, the analyst believes GTA V will debut some time in the 2011 fiscal year. The only reason it wasn't announced or teased in any way during E3, he believes, is "Rockstar's track record with delivering on time."

The most curious of statements Mitchell made was regarding the possibility of a new Grand Theft Auto hitting the PlayStation 2 system. No, you read that right. He believes a PS2 port of the PSP port of the formerly DS-exclusive Chinatown Wars may hit the aging Sony system, although he admits he's not too "confident" about that prediction. Pachter, eat your heart out.

From the obscure annals of May 2008 comes the testimony of BBFC head David Cooke, who confirmed that the now irrelevant UK ratings board had investigated the authenticity of "instructional information about how to make the drug crystal meth" in Grand Theft Auto IV. The incident was brought to light today in a Times Online article examining PEGI's recent appointment as the sole UK video games classification authority and allegations that the organization might not be as thorough as the BBFC had been in its review process; for example: testing out GTA IV's so-called meth recipe.

We're not certain just how far the BBFC went in its drug trial, but "independent advice" was sought in order to deem that "crucial ingredients and techniques were missing" from the scrutinized game content. What does this mean for the rest of us? Well, one, if you're in the planning stages of a homebrewed meth lab, you should probably look beyond GTA IV's suggestions. And, two, if you've already got your lab up and running, you may want to contact your legal team and tell them that the "GTA made me do it" defense isn't going to work this time. That is, only if the coppers catch you before you blow yourself up.

[Via GamePolitics]

Rockstar Leeds and Rockstar North, together with LittleBigPlanet dev Media Molecule have netted an impressive eleven nominations for the 2009 Develop Industry Excellence Awards, the UK's annual prize patrol for all things excellent in the industry.

The Rockstar houses pocketed six of their own for work on GTA: Chinatown Wars and GTA IV: The Lost and the Damned, including nods for visual arts, technical innovation and audio. Rockstar Leeds is also up for the award for best handheld game studio, while both are in the running for being recognized as the best in-house team. Media Molecule is up for five awards as well, including best indie studio and best new IP. The Guildford studio is also up for the technical innovation award, where it's not only up against the Rockstar folks, but the teams behind Killzone 2, PlayStation Home, Football Manager Live and Fable II.

We wish all nominees the best of luck and remind them not to forget to thanks their moms should they take the stage and accept an award during the July 15 ceremony.

Eager to fill their lungs with the clean air of independent living, Rockstar Games co-founders Jamie King and Gary Foreman have headed for the hills. Along the way the pair picked up Nicholas Perret from Image Metrics, known for its amazing yet slightly creepy Emily video, and entertainment exec Paul Coyne. Next stop: 4mm Games, a new game studio that, according to CEO Perret, aims to "deliver groundbreaking content with global appeal to a consumer who lives online."

4mm isn't talking specifics, though the company has netted "significant" backing from game-focused investment firm, CEA Autumn Games. According to 4mm, the companies have agreed to a multi-year partnership, which includes multiple titles and platforms. Beyond this, 4mm is keeping quiet on what it plans to spend its new-found cash on, but we'll keep our eyes on the horizon as things develop.

With E3 2009 just a scant 17 days away, the hype machine has certainly started to build for quite a few game companies. And Rockstar Games is apparently no exception, teasing its upcoming GTAIV DLC via Twitter of all places.

Stating as vaguely as possible, "Details on 2nd episode of GTAIV downloadable content coming soon," Rockstar has officially started the ball rolling on wild speculation. Though it's possible the company will bust out details on the next expansion to Liberty City pre-E3, we're not betting anyone's baby on it. But then really, who bets a baby? You monster!

CNBC is wondering if slow sales for The Lost and the Damned and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars are pointing to an overall slowdown for the series. The site points to analysts' estimates that only 1 million of those 13 million who bought GTA IV picked up the first DLC for the game, and to the crummy 89,000 units the DS title moved in March.

We're not sure we're on board with CNBC's theory just yet, though. The market for GTA IV's DLC was already split because of its 360 exclusivity and Chinatown Wars is a hardcore game on what's largely thought of as a casual system. What do you think?

DLC can expand a game in many ways. Not only can it expand the experience offered by a title, but it can also expand your wallet, take out your money, and place it in the hands of publishers and developers. And, by 2010, EEDAR predicts that "the average AAA title should be able to earn an additional 10% in revenue by releasing additional content through digital distribution."

It's not a hard pill to swallow; DLC packs such as The Lost and Damned and Call of Duty: World at War's Map Pack 1 have been selling like virtual hotcakes, and Sony has been milking LittleBigPlanet in all the appropriate ways. Also, let's not forget about Criterion Games, the company that has been adding value consistently to its Burnout Paradise game. Of course, gamers have been complaining about paid DLC just as consistently.

Citing February NPD numbers against those in the past couple of years -- and Microsoft's own, mysterious Xbox Live numbers on GTA IV's exclusive downloadable expansion -- Xbox 360 product management director Aaron Greenberg did quite a bit of chest pounding to Gamasutra's Chris Remo yesterday. Broaching the subject of competitors head on, Greenberg says, "What we hear from our partners is that it's not just PS3, it's also PS2 down 62 percent year over year. With that business declining, and with the PS3 business declining, it's been described to me as hemorrhaging at retail right now, and it just keeps getting worse."

Moving right along to the subject of Killzone 2 -- a game released on the 27th of a 28 day month -- Greenberg compares the title to the aforementioned GTA IV mystery numbers, "If that content was sold at retail, it would be one of the best sellers across all platforms. It would have outsold Killzone 2." Considering GTA IV's astronomical sales numbers, if even half of the game's owners have the 360 iteration and a quarter of those people bought the expansion, that's over 1.5 million downloads. Still, without hard numbers to back up his statements, Greenberg's words amount to little more than our monthly rendezvous with executive smack talking.

Update: SCEA responds to February NPD numbers on Joystiq PlayStation. "We have no doubt [Killzone 2] will deliver a next gen experience and will be responsible for driving hardware sales throughout the year."

Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (EEDAR) analyst Jesse Divnich's crystal ball predicts brick-and-mortar retail sales of GTA IV's expansion, The Lost and Damned, to be less than $3 million. He believes current global sales from customers who purchased it across Xbox Live to be around $18 million. This latest bit of analyst prognostication comes following Pachter's missive (translated from an Illuminati memo) that GTA's biker expansion could sell upwards of two million units by year's end.

Although the 6-to-1 online vs. retail ratio seems dramatic, is it really surprising when The Lost and Damned was promoted as a DLC pack anyway? In this case, retail was just a middle man, as those who purchased the "game" at their local bodega received a card with a code to download the expansion. All we really know at this point is that the game is selling very well.

Take-Two recently dished out deets concerning how much of the coveted moneyz the company made and how much of that was attributed to car theft. Following that, the company's stock started to get a spring in its step, rising 10% yesterday. With the company reporting a $50 million loss, seeing such a sharp climb is surprising, to say the least.

Take-Two's next game, GTA: Chinatown Wars, is due for release on March 17.

Take-Two's Q1 investor's call is going down right now, and one of the first items of news to blast its way out is the knee-wobbling figure of 13 million units; which is roughly the number of copies of GTA IV that has shipped worldwide on all platforms as of January 31, 2009 (technically, it's "over" 13 million shipped). To put that in perspective: that's more than one third of the population of Canada.

Also of note, Take-Two continues to list GTA IV's second Xbox 360 DLC episode for release in "fiscal 2009" (that's before November 1, 2009 -- for all you regular calendar users). "DLC will be an important part of our business going forward," CEO Ben Feder declared during the call.

Wedbush Morgan soothsayer Michael Pachter foresees the next console Grand Theft Auto releasing next year and estimates sales of DLC The Lost and Damned reaching two million units by year's end. Pachter feels Take-Two remains a "one-hit wonder" with Grand Theft Auto, that one franchise has been (putting it mildly) immensely successful.

Although Take-Two has yet to announce a new GTA, Pachter believes the next installment in the crime series will pull up to retail next year and likely outsell GTA IV by 50 percent, due to the greater next-gen console install base by next year. Although there are currently no solid numbers to support Pachter's belief that The Lost and Damned DLC will sell two million units this year, we do know a lot of people got on their hogs for biker-based adventure.

Move over Bionic Commando: Rearmed and Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, because there's a new top earner on Xbox Live, and it's GTA IV's "The Lost and Damned". Rockstar's Xbox 360-exclusive DLC pack featuring Johnny and his crazy motorbiking buddies has set a record on the service, as its first-day sales revenue has eclipsed all other titles that have debuted on Xbox Live (note: at $20, The Lost and Damned is also more expensive than the previous record holders). Sadly, exact sales figures aren't given, so we don't know how much Microsoft and Rockstar have made off the DLC yet. When we know, we'll be sure to let you know.

GTA IV's "The Lost and Damned" DLC pack is available now on Xbox Live Marketplace for 1600.

Whoever said being a Bar-licensed, practicing lawyer had anything to do with amending existing laws has clearly never met Jack Thompson. Thompson's most recent game bill, authored by Representative Mike Morley and Mr. Thompson, was resoundingly passed (at 10-3) by the Business and Labor Committee of the Utah House of Representatives yesterday. What does this mean for Utah residents? Well, nothing yet, as the bill is now headed off to the full Utah House of Representatives for consideration.

If the bill goes into law, however, retailers of all varieties in the state (from big-box outlets like Best Buy and Wal-Mart to independent theater owners) will be facing a $2000 fine for every documented sale of mature-rated content to a minor. We wanted some clarification on the law and it's possible ramifications, so we went straight to the source. After the jump you can see for yourself everything Mr. Thompson told us about his recently penned bill.

Digital dong appreciators in Singapore rejoiced today as government officials have OK'd the digital distribution of the Grand Theft Auto IV 360-exclusive expansion, "The Lost & Damned." Regardless of the "controversy" surrounding the expansion's full-frontal male nudity, Ernest Khoo, Singapore's head of video games and media content at the Singapore Media Development Authority, has deemed the DLC safe enough for consumption in the country.

Approaching the nudity issue head on, Mr. Khoo says, "[the scene is] non-sexual and can hence fall within the M18 rating." Expanding on the M18 rating, he explained, "only those 18-years-old and above will be buying the game and its expansion pack." Hopefully, the army of Media Development Authority workers manning individual Xbox 360s in Singapore will be checking IDs.

[Via GamePolitics]