GTA5 this year???

This April will mark three years since the last numbered release in the Grand Theft Auto series. That's an unusually long time for the franchise, but Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter believes the wait for the next GTA game is almost over -- according to him, there's a very good chance we'll see it this year.

During a presentation of its third quarter fiscal results yesterday, Take-Two declined to offer up any release window for the inevitable follow-up to Grand Theft Auto IV. However, Pachter speculates that a release sometime prior to January 2012 makes a lot of sense. Why January? That's when the contracts for several key individuals at Rockstar expire -- namely, the Houser brothers Sam and Dan, as well as Leslie Benzies. The Housers have been an intricate part of the GTA series for years and the duo was even named to the 2009 Time 100 list.

"It seems rational to us that Take-Two management would have entered into the three-year contract only if there was some required delivery of GTA," Pachter suggested. "Equally, it makes sense that the three key employees would be motivated to deliver a GTA title before the expiration of their contract, in order to gain negotiating leverage for the next contract."

Following the release of Grand Theft Auto III in 2001, Vice City was out in 2002, followed two years later by San Andreas in 2004. There were also the two spin-offs for the PSP, Liberty City Stories (2005) and Vice City Stories (2006) which eventually came to PS2. Compare that with the last several years of GTA releases and you'll see a noticeable difference -- Grand Theft Auto IV was out in 2008, and since then we've only seen its two expansion packs and the handheld Chinatown Wars.

It would be commendable if Rockstar and Take-Two were simply attempting to avoid running the franchise into the ground (it'd be pretty smart, too, in light of what's reportedly happened to Guitar Hero). Or maybe Rockstar has been working on a fully-fledged sequel -- GTA 5 -- as opposed to the vice City/San Andreas-style sequel.

Pachter also stated that the lack of any real news on the Rockstar-published Max Payne 3 during Take-Two's financial report means the game is on the "back burner," thereby freeing up development resources to finish GTA5. If the next GTA really is going to be coming before those contracts expire in January 2012, it shouldn't be long before we hear about it -- perhaps even at this year's E3 in June.

http://www.1up.com/news/grand-theft-auto-5-release-date-11-analyst

In light of this news, and despite being a fan of the GTA series.

"meh".

In the sense that another GTA means little, and whether or not I get it despite the hype or my friends teling me its good means nothing. And I doubt if I do get it, Ill play through it and mess as much as I used to in the earlier series, like Vice City or San Andreas.

But I'll probably still get it at some point when the price is down.
... that is unless my dad gets it for me first. which means I'll end up playing through and unlocking everything, while he uses my profile to access said unlockables because he only wants to run about and cause havoc and barely even think about playing through the game itself.

But this is just my opinion.

CreepinDeth said:

Is it really? I distinctly remember a 3 1/2 year wait between SA and GTA4. And a 7 year wait between 3 and 4. Or am I missing something?

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Wurd. Plus they did put out a number of DLC packs for GTA IV during the year and a half following the game's release. That would essentially make it only a two year period where there hasn't been a release under the GTA brand.

It would be sweet if they did, though. I am a sucker for those games, but I would like to see a full on sequel, not just GTA IV.5.