Rockstar Games has delayed Grand Theft Auto IV until early 2008.
The release date has been changed from the original October 16th 2007, and instead moved to "the second quarter of its fiscal 2008", according to IGN.
This means GTA IV will hit store shelves between February 1st and April 30th.
The reason given was simply that the developer needs more time to add the finishing touches. Early hands-on previews by the press showed some concern about the frame rate, for example.
Sam Houser, founder and executive producer of Rockstar Games, commented on the delay:
"The new consoles are allowing us to create the Grand Theft Auto game we always dreamed about. Every aspect of the game and its design has been completely transformed."
GTA3, Vice City and San Andreas were all built on the same engine. Thus, GTA IV is so called because it is built from ground-up, with a whole new engine, for next generation consoles.
Houser continued:
"The game is huge and is pushing the hardware platforms to their absolute limits. The top engineers from Sony and Microsoft are working closely with the team in Edinburgh right now, helping us to fully leverage the power of both platforms. As always, our goal is to surpass even the wildest expectations of the game’s fans, and to create the ultimate high definition video game experience."
We’ll have more soon.