Rockstar Vice President - and GTA V writer - Dan Houser says the old consoles are perfectly capable of delivering his team's vision. "The fact that hardware's so mature right now is exactly why we're able to go on to the next level," he told Japan's Famitsu magazine last year.
Besides, he added, "All the best games for a console come out at the end of the life cycle, right?" And in a year that's featured stunners like BioShock Infinite, The Last of Us and Tomb Raider, he has a point.
The other advantage for Rockstar is the huge combined user base of the PS3 and Xbox 360, which translates into much bigger sales than GTA V would rack up among the new consoles' early adopters.
"The demand for (new) consoles appears to be very strong," said GameStop CEO Paul Raines, "but I think GTA is a separate animal - and we will sell a lot of copies of GTA V."
Won't the absence of GTA V hurt sales of the forthcoming PlayStation 4 and Xbox One?
"People are going to buy new consoles because they're ready for a new console," said Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities. "They're not going to say, 'Oh, GTA V isn't on it? I'm not buying it.' Nobody is going to buy a new console just to play one game - and no one game is going to keep them from buying a new console."
Q: So what's new here?
Rockstar doesn't participate in the kind of public relations that typically accompany a big-budget video game. It didn't show GTA V at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the annual convention where all the big publishers compete for attention.
Instead of a steady flow of previews across every tech news site on the web, Rockstar has carefully parcelled out a screenshot here, an in-game video there. Many critics - even at some huge gaming sites - found themselves frozen out of review copies.
Most gamers, then, won't know what's in GTA V until they play it. It's set in the sprawling city and outlying areas of Los Santos, Rockstar's tongue-in-cheek take on Los Angeles.
The developers have boasted that the game's virtual footprint is larger than all previous editions of GTA combined. Instead of one protagonist, players switch between three criminals: veteran Michael, twisted Trevor and newbie Franklin.
Expect plenty of the franchise's two cornerstones: driving recklessly and killing frequently. Beyond the usual mayhem, you can also play golf and tennis or invest in the stock market. Houser has said it's 100 hours long.
The game will also feature Grand Theft Auto Online, a separate multiplayer experience.
Q: Wait ... online?
Grand Theft Auto Online is far more ambitious than anything Rockstar has tried in the past. The company describes it as "a dynamic and persistent online world for 16 players that begins by sharing gameplay features, geography and mechanics with Grand Theft Auto V, but will continue to expand and evolve after its launch." Rockstar is promising a steady diet of missions, solo and team-based, as well as the ability for GTA fans to create their own missions.
The bad news: It doesn't launch until October 1. The good news: It will be free - to anyone who buys GTA V, of course.
Q: But will it sell?
Of course it will.
Grand Theft Auto IV, the previous full-fledged GTA installment for consoles, shattered entertainment industry records, selling 6 million copies and earning $500 million in sales its first week of release in 2008. That record was later captured by Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and each subsequent Call of Duty launched over the past four years.
"We've had very strong triple-A competitors every single year we've released a Call of Duty game," said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Call of Duty publisher Activision, when asked about GTA V. "This year is no different. Maybe the competition is more intense this year than usual, but if we put out a great game, our fans will appreciate it."
A widely circulated report from The Scotsman newspaper estimated that the development and marketing of GTA V cost US$265 million. Pachter believes the game's actual cost outside of marketing is more like $100 million.
Whatever the number, Rockstar and Take-Two will surely surpass the success of GTA IV, which sold 25 million copies. Pachter expects 15 million to 18 million copies sold by the end of the year.
"It's a juggernaut," said GameStop's Raines. "It's a beast."
- AP
