Rumor: Rockstar Readying Full GTA Sequel for Late 2009 Release?

If this is true, I hope for only two major aspects of change in the next game:

One, that they had time to reevaluate and/or re-image the mini-games that will exist in the game. The games (darts, pool, bowling) weren't in themselves bad, but came across as very mundane and possibly even out of place in a world where I could walk away unscathed after rolling sports car fifteen times on a major highway, take hookers into back alleys and kill em, barricade myself in in a gun store and kill about two-hundred SWAT members, etc. I'd rather have mini-games in the vein of Saints Row 2 because they didn't break the game-play experience in that they, for better or worse in regard to innovation, didn't step away from the core gameplay.

Two, they better farkin' create a proper modern rock radio station in-game. Give me some Seether, Disturbed, Breaking Benjamin, Lostprophets, etc. so I can rock out while I go on my virtual drives.

I know some of the PS2 GTA games handled both of these elements better than GTA IV did, so I have hope.

Who else is holdiing their breath for a PC version of this one to come out? LOL

As I said before, after I got through a few bugs of the PC version on day 1 I had the game running flawlessly. I spent 80 hours so far playing that game and I loved every min of it, I'd love another title for PC.

I'm assuming the sales for GTA4 were poor in North America for retail stores after seeing the NPD sales charts. I really want to know how the total sales were for GTA4 PC world wide. I bet it sold quite well over services like STEAM since it's been in their top 10 sellers every week since it's release but we never will know actual numbers. Since they already ported GTA4 to PC, porting another should take half the time.

The next title would do better as long as they clean up the bugs that ruined the game for so many then they can redeem themselves for sure. Oh ya one more thing, another patch for GTA4 PC is a absolute MUST, any word on when or if that will happen?

Make PC version of GTA 4 playable first, then do what ever you want with dlc or stand alone expansion stuff since price of games are going up and when dont remember them ever beeing so pricey, finally buy a game at retail (instead of online) then it runs like crap (first times cpu load was always stuck at 100% and ram at 40% when i was in the god damn menu, not to mention it's annoying as hell to having to have 2 accounts to log into 1 game, just used to install and play at least for single player, not much multiplayer either

And please bring back crazy drivers! And random shit happening.

I wasnt that impressed with 4. I thought I would find myself playing a lot but I didnt. A big part of it was the "realistic" driving. Fun>realism.

*crosses fingers* VICE CITY FOR THE LOVE OF GOD VICE CITY PLEASE

They should also implement some sort of cheat protection because right now GTA IV is almost as bad as Call of Duty : World at War for cheats, if not worse.

People using god mode hacks, car spawners, car stats modiiers, weapon modifiers, its total crap. I realize GTA is not 'competitive online' material, but it still ruins the fun for people - they could at least implement punkbuster or something to that effect.

World at War is a total flop for competitive play because anyone can use r_sizecull 1 on a toggle key.

Developers need to pay more attention to online details in their games instead of failing horribly like Treyarch and Rockstar.

I remember reading in a magazine, perhaps EDGE, about 8 months before GTA4 came out, Sam Houser said the content was all done and they could basically easily throw anything into that engine from that point, so this could be likely.

I do not see this being "incredibly unlikely". Rockstar has done it before and they can do it again. Logistically it does not have to overshadow the DLC packs, the first comes out next month, and the second not long after, probably Spring/Summer, leaving the lucrative Fall season open for a full sequel. Do not forget how many copies of GTAIV were either rented (top rental of 2008) or resold to EB/Gametop. Rockstar always announced their games with a release date, just like GTAIV, it was delayed, mainly for technical reasons, not content reasons. With the technology in check and working, probably easily being updated, now comes the time to create the sequels, just like Vice City and San Andreas. I see it being announced in the Summer, after the second DLC pack and then being released in October/November.

Rockstar and 2K Games made a killing last generation with this model, I doubt they are just going to throw it out the window for this generation.

I'm pretty sure Nick's last line about overshadowing the DLC releases is pretty telling. More FUD spreading to try to put the brakes on the X360 hype machine. Not sure how GI got involved but it being reported by PSU is all you really need to know.

I can't see this happening. If it was easy for them to build an entirely new game, wouldn't they have had the 360 DLC out back in the fall when it was supposed to be out?

aha..cool....but what about fixing shadow issues and performance in general of GTA IV first?