So, I know that this probably belongs in Console Chat more than here at first thought, but I want a real, general discussion about something that's been irking me.
I'm no stranger to delays. I almost expect them nowadays. But is it me, or has the industry forgotten not to bite off more than they can chew? See, I was waiting very patiently for GTA4. It looked amazing. The new style of the series made me want to tour NYC to see similarities. And I was promised, not just told, but promised that the game would be available on 10/16/07. And now that story has changed to "March" only two and (not even) a half months before ship date. This is bad and good, a true double-edge, but it's Sigfried-Schtauffen-Zweihander-huge: sure, we get it in march, where the slow period (a lull, if you will) for AAA releases gets fully underway but at the cost of burning one of the most loyal and diehard fanbases established in games today. We've seen the game running - the XB360 build was what all of the trailers were made from. It looked pretty damn close to completion to me. So, I guess that my burning questions are these:
1.) Did Sony pay a lot of money to Rockstar to make sure that the PS3 version wouldn't be worse (relatively speaking) than the XB360 version?
I'm not fanboy-paranoid. I just think that with the recent shit-canning of Manhunt 2, the fact that Rockstar went on record to say that the 360 version would be getting all kinds of online content while the PS3 version would be getting little-if-any, PLUS combined with the fact that the PS3, as the PS2 was in its infancy, is notorious for being not too programmer-friendly had a lot to do with this. It just seems a little too convenient.
2.) Was the PS3 version to blame?
See above statement.
3.) Wouldn't this be the worst possible thing to happen to them, since Take-Two is getting investigated for multiple actions and the recent delay (oh, let's just call it an outright ban of the real version) of Manhunt 2?
Alienate one sect of your fans, then alienate the whole movement. That's not good PR, and that's saying a lot for a company used to defending themselves from the US Government.
4.) Why shoot yourself in the foot like that, Rockstar?
Other games are turning around for multiple passes through development limbo/hell. Like Starcraft: Ghost - that's what this shit echoes, but in a more widespread sense. Discuss.