Michael Pachter Blaming PS3 For The GTA 4 Delay
Gaming analyst Michael Pachter gave his theory on the cause of Grand Theft Auto 4’s delay to 2008. He
quickly pointed a finger at Sony, claiming that Rockstar didn’t realize what they were getting themselves into with the PlayStation 3 hardware, and that Sony basically said that if they delayed the PS3 version, the 360 version had to be delayed as well.
“We think it is likely that the Rockstar team had difficulty in building an exceptionally complicated game for the PS3, and failed to recognise how far away from completion the game truly was until recently. We think it is also likely that Take-Two had a contractual commitment to Sony that it would not favour competitor Microsoft by launching the Xbox 360 version of GTA IV prior to launching the PS3 version, and believe that any delay of the PS3 version necessitated a delay of the Xbox 360 version.”
As of now the only official word we have on the delay is that it was due to technical reasons, and that’s far too broad to blame solely on the PlayStation 3. It should also be taken into consideration that the Xbox 360 is the technically inferior of the two consoles.