Take a deep breath and keep in mind: Delays are good.
OK, that assertion isn’t at all times true, however it often is. Delayed initiatives typically end in unhealthy video games (taking a look at you, Duke Nukem 3D), however way more usually taking extra time produces great things. Spending meticulous weeks to get one thing excellent issues in artwork, as does discovering the bravery to throw out concepts that appeared clever in idea however by no means panned out. Think about what number of half-finished video games you’ve ever purchased and performed after which wished the writer had simply delayed till it was proper and prepared. Got that thought in your head? OK, maintain onto it.
GTA 6 is delayed, and that’s good, as a result of it is going to most likely be higher for the delay.
Rockstar has an extended historical past of delaying video games to verify they’re prepared for market, a strikingly constant little bit of self-discipline that locations them alongside Nintendo in an elite fraternity of studios that wait till the casserole is totally cooked earlier than serving. And boy, is it at all times scrumptious.
I’ve been taking part in GTA video games so long as they’ve been round, beginning with four-player PC GTA LAN events. I’ve performed essentially the most obscure (London 1969), the very best (GTA V), and the true finest (Chinatown Wars for DS). I’ve ransacked and crashed and shot my approach by way of these goofy, great worlds for many years. And fortunately, these video games are virtually at all times late… and never coincidentally, at all times nice. Here’s each delay in GTA historical past (and a few Red Dead too).
Grand Theft Auto III
Rockstar’s New York workplaces had been positioned only some blocks from the World Trade Center, and Take Two didn’t waste any time briefly delaying GTA III following the September 11 assaults. . Marketing VP Terry Donovan introduced the delay solely days after the tragedy:
“Our choice is predicated on two elements, firstly it has been a bit of tough to get work completed in downtown Manhattan within the final week since primary communications infrastructure has been intermittent at finest, and secondly we felt {that a} full content material assessment of all our titles and the advertising and marketing supplies we use to signify them was completely crucial for us in gentle of the horrifying occasion all of us witnessed within the United States final week.”
He continued: “As for Grand Theft Auto, because the sport is so big the assessment isn’t any quick course of. So far we now have come throughout sure small contextual references that we had been now not comfy with, in addition to a few very uncommon gameplay cases that now not felt acceptable to us. We apologize to you and all of the folks ready for this sport to ship for the delays which have now ensued, however I’m certain you’ll be able to perceive our reasoning. Rest assured the sport might be phenomenal…and you may count on it to hit cabinets in late October.”
Even with solely minimal content material adjustments, the delay was a clever choice for Rockstar and gamers alike. Blasting cops and ambulances in Liberty City so quickly after the violent deaths of 1000’s wouldn’t have been interesting to anyone.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
The co-prize for shortest delay is shared between Vice City and San Andreas. Back within the olden days earlier than downloadable sport shops and day-one patches, producers guessed forward of time simply how a lot of a bodily product they’d want to provide for a given shelf date, and typically they guessed fallacious. Rockstar delayed Vice City by seven days to offer them time to fabricate extra discs (and thus meet the super day-one demand for a GTA III follow-up).
San Andreas for PS2 additionally hit streets every week later than deliberate, a strategic decision designed to give the dev team a few extra days to polish their two-year project.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
Okay, so actual discuss: The GTA handheld video games go laborious… laborious sufficient that it’s price dusting off your historical PlayStation Portable or DS to attempt them. GTA’s wonderful forays onto portables often arrive on time, however Vice City Stories for PSP was delayed for two weeks in North America, and longer in elements of Europe.
The finest GTA of all of them (combat me!) didn’t arrive exactly on time. The extremely artistic and complicated DS gamechit cabinets two months later than anticipated. When it did lastly arrive, it blew the socks off of critics, and it’s one among gaming’s nice tragedies that no person purchased it… we is perhaps taking part in Chinatown Wars 3 on our new Switch 2s proper now if that they had.
Grand Theft Auto IV
After GTA III modified the panorama of video video games, anticipation for GTA IV was palpable. With clunky RenderWare left behind and a model new console era to work with, Rockstar Leeds was aiming for the stratosphere. Bringing their imaginative and prescient to actuality in the end demanded a number of months of delay.
As Rockstar’s Sam Hause defined, “The new consoles [PS3 and 360] are permitting us to create the Grand Theft Auto sport we at all times dreamed about. Every facet of the sport and its design has been utterly remodeled. The sport is large and is pushing the {hardware} platforms to their absolute limits. The high engineers from Sony and Microsoft are working carefully with the staff in Edinburgh proper now, serving to us to totally leverage the ability of each platforms. As at all times, our aim is to surpass even the wildest expectations of the sport’s followers, and to create the final word excessive definition online game expertise.”
Grand Theft Auto V
The largest console sport of all time was a very long time coming. GTA V lastly landed in September 2013, however was initially anticipated to reach within the spring of that very same 12 months. But in late January 2013, Rockstar launched the next message:
“We know that is about 4 months later than initially deliberate and we all know that this quick delay will come as a disappointment to a lot of you, however, belief us, it will likely be price the additional time. GTAV is a massively formidable and sophisticated sport and it merely wants a bit of extra polish to be of the usual we and, extra importantly, you require. ‘To all Grand Theft Auto followers, please settle for our apologies for the delay, and our promise that your entire staff right here is working very laborious to make the sport all it may be. We are doing all we are able to to assist guarantee it is going to meet if not exceed your expectations come September – we thanks on your help and endurance.’”
They weren’t fallacious. GTA V went on to change into essentially the most profitable console sport of all time, and alongside RDR2, it’s a real jewel in Rockstar’s crown.
Red Dead Redemption 2
Speaking of RDR2… it’s not part of the GTA sequence, however it’s Rockstar’s finest sport and I like speaking about it. In preserving with the custom of Rockstar quality-based delays, we’re including a little bit of an appendix by mentioning Red Dead Redemption 2, which was delayed twice, first in spring 2017 for high quality assurance functions. The second delay got here in February 2018, pushing RDR2 to late October. The assertion from Rockstar defined that, once more, this was a top quality subject.
“We are excited to announce that Red Dead Redemption 2 might be launched on October twenty sixth 2018. We apologize to everybody disenchanted by this delay. While we had hoped to have the sport out sooner, we require a bit of further time for polish.
“We sincerely thanks on your endurance and hope that whenever you get to play the sport, you’ll agree the wait can have been price it. In the meantime, please try these screenshots from the sport. We stay up for sharing much more data with you within the coming weeks.”
That delay, like all of the others right here, labored out swimmingly, delivering a real murals nonetheless unparalleled in journey gaming.
So mates, don’t despair. GTA 6 will come, and when it comes, it is going to nearly actually be very, excellent. See you in Vice City.
Jared Petty is a former IGN editor who likes writing about how great and foolish video video games are. You can discover him at Bluesky as pettycommajared.
