30% of Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 owners have purchased GTA IV

Although many people felt a little let down by GTA IV the game was still a huge success, such to the extend that 32% of Playstation 3 and 28% of Xbox 360 owners have it in their collection. The figures came straight from the horses mouth (Strauss Zelnick) at the BMO Capital Markets Conference where details about Chinatown Wars and the GTA IV DLC were also dished out.

As well as these sales figures some other interesting statistics were released.

Average Publisher Title Review Score (2007 - 2008)

Publisher	Avg. Review
Take Two	76%
Electronic Arts	73%
THQ	66%
Ubisoft	66%
Activision	63%

Publisher US Market Share (2002 - 2007)

Publisher	Market Share
Electronic Arts	20%
Activision / Vivendi	13%
Take-Two	7%
THQ	6%
Ubisoft	5%

Chinatown Wars Expected Feb - April, GTA IV DLC end of Jan

Take-Two's Strauss Zelnick (Speaking at the BMO Capital Market Conference) supplied proposed release dates for both Chinatown Wars and the ever delayed GTA IV DLC.

Chinatown Wars is expected sometime between February and April 09 pushing the release into Take-Two second fiscal quarter, whereas the long-awaited GTA IV DLC is expected in late January.

GTA IV nominated in Video Game Awards 2008

Spike TV has just announced the names for the 2008 VGAs (Video Game Awards). Unsurprisingly GTA IV has been nominated for several awards. You can see the awards relevants to GTA IV below. If you want to see the other nominations then head on over to Kotaku.

Game of the Year

• Grand Theft Auto IV
• LittleBigPlanet
• Fallout 3
• Metal Gear Solid 4
• Gears of War 2

Studio of the Year

• Media Molecule
• Rockstar North
• Harmonix
• Bethesda Game Studios

Best Action Adventure Game

• Grand Theft Auto IV
• Dead Space
• Mirror's Edge
• Metal Gear Solid 4

Best Soundtrack

• LittleBigPlanet
• Grand Theft Auto IV
• Rock Band 2
• Guitar Hero World Tour

Best Xbox 360 Game

• Fable II
• Gears of War 2
• Grand Theft Auto IV
• Fallout 3

Best PS3 Game

• Metal Gear Solid 4
• Resistance 2
• LittleBigPlanet
• Grant Theft Auto IV

Best Performance by a Human Male

• Michael Hollick as Niko Bellic in GTA IV
• David Hayter as Old Snake in MGS 4
• Stephen Fry as The Narrator in LBP
• Jason Zumwalt as Roman Bellic in GTA IV

Variety Interview Dan Houser

In an interview with Variety, Dan Houser talks about the prospect of the GTA IV DLC being delayed until early next year. This wouldn't be the craziest thing that could happen but I feel that with all the quality titles coming out as of late games won't be too disappointed.

The interview is well worth the read as they discuss GTA IV's impact in Japan in comparison to older titles in the GTA series.

Keys to the City Dispatched

The Rockstar Social Club ran a "competition" of sorts upon the release of GTA IV; for games comitted enough to completing the game 100% before a certain date they were given the "Keys to the City", which is basically a nice looking key in a protective case. The keys are now being dished out and you can see one below;

Credit to Kotaku for reporting this.

GTA IV PC Delay Confirmed

Rockstar Games have confirmed that GTA IV PC will be released on December 2nd in the USA and the 3rd in Europe.

GTA IV PC Replay Feature

It seems like GTA IV PC's new replay feature is what people are most looking forward to. TVG have an interesting article on this feature. This information can also be found in our GTA IV PC section!

• 20 - 30 seconds of recorded footage depending on the amound of action on screen.
• Video editor accessed through Niko's phone.
• Link multiple clips together into one video.
• The editor uses a marker system; markers can be set at any point along the Time Bar to initiate a change of camera angle/field of vision, a different filter for the display, slowing down/speeding up the playback speed, or even adding music and text.
• Use a free-cam or revolve the angle around different target points to get the best view of your footage.
• Camera can be moved around 20-30 meters from Niko; the field of vision, pitch, and ability to move a camera around a fixed point give nigh on limitless options.
• Speed up and slow down footage by a factor of x4.
• Apply effects and filters to footage such as 'Sepia' and 'Noire'.

GTA IV Real Life Video

There must be a million fan-made GTA-in-real-life videos on YouTube but there is a certain degree of quality surrounding Sqeaky Fresh Multimedia's offering.

 Thanks to Jordan from PlanetGrandTheftAuto for the news.

GTA IV Takes Japanese Chart by Storm

PS3Fanboy reports that GTA IV is seeing success in Japan moreso than many expected.

1. Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3)
2. Valkyrie Profile: The Accused One (DS)
3. LittleBigPlanet (PS3)
4. Grand Theft Auto IV (360)
5. Wagamama Fassion Girls Mode (DS)
6. Pokemon Platinum (DS)
7. Gran Turismo 5 Prologue: Spec III (PS3)
8. Rhythm Tengoku Gold (DS)
9. Chocobo's Dungeon DS+ (DS)
10. Wii Music (Wii)

Kikizo Previews GTAIV PC

Gaming site Kikizo have just posted a preview of GTAIV PC. They have made similar comments to others lucky enough to get a preview of the upcoming game mentioning the improved graphical quality of the game, as well as the replay feature.

Back on the ground, the texture resolution is noticeably higher; you can see (and read) advertisements in the subway station, signs in buildings and logos on merchandise that you wouldn't even have noticed before. There's also something about the fluidity and detail that gives the gameplay an even more rapid feel than was experienced on console; locking on from enemy to enemy is much smoother and feels really cutting edge, and the graphics engine relies an awful lot less on motion blur to convey speed - on the console GTA IV, motion blur looked pretty incredible, but here on this set-up, it's so well executed you don't even notice it. They've obviously had some smart people working on this, and it's once again a testament to the RAGE engine's ability to upscale to higher spec, which we've only seen in the PC version of GTA IV for the first time. It's further evidence that RAGE is one of the best bits of technology in gaming right now.