OFFICIAL GTA 4 MEGA THREAD
- Thread starter FatBlunts209
- Start date
As it turns out, Grand Theft Auto does cause crime. Namely, people steal copies of Grand Theft Auto.
Ars Technica reports that over the past 24 hours, at least three UPS employees have been fired for ripping into shipments of Grand Theft Auto IV in an attempt to take a copy of the game home for themselves prior to its Tuesday release date.
Interestingly enough, the website's source says that this doesn't happen for ordinary big-name videogame releases, and GTA was an exception. But UPS does have security measures in place that snare employees looking to pocket packages, and they've caught far more than just the three who were summarily released.
"They're not selling them, these people are stealing one copy," said the source.
Grand Theft UPS [Ars Technica]
Image: Wired.com, zyphbear/Flickr
Ars Technica reports that over the past 24 hours, at least three UPS employees have been fired for ripping into shipments of Grand Theft Auto IV in an attempt to take a copy of the game home for themselves prior to its Tuesday release date.
Interestingly enough, the website's source says that this doesn't happen for ordinary big-name videogame releases, and GTA was an exception. But UPS does have security measures in place that snare employees looking to pocket packages, and they've caught far more than just the three who were summarily released.
"They're not selling them, these people are stealing one copy," said the source.
Grand Theft UPS [Ars Technica]
Image: Wired.com, zyphbear/Flickr
"Grand Theft Auto IV," which goes on sale tonight in a midnight release is a killer product, and for many, a national symbol for violence as entertainment.
The product's extraordinary popularity is why the GameStop specialty chain, which bills itself as the nation's largest game retailer of any kind, is planning midnight-release events at more than 3,500 of its 4,100 U.S. stores. The goal is to rake in the heftiest possible chunk of hundreds of millions of dollars in first-week sales of the game, as well as ringing up extra sales of consoles and accessories.
" 'GTA' is one of the very few titles that you can point to and say they really drive hardware sales," said Bob McKenzie, senior vice president of merchandising for GameStop, based in Grapevine, Texas.
The "Grand Theft Auto" series, published under the Rockstar Games label of Take-Two Interactive Software, is as wildly controversial as it is successful. The latest edition is being released for two consoles, Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3.
Early reviews indicate "GTA IV" - rated Mature, which means it's recommended for people 17 and older - extends the series' tradition of thuggery, shooting, murder and car chases in an overall environment of extremely coarse behavior. But the game's trendiness, which stems from its depth and artistic style as well as the raw action, attracts many children as strongly as it does adults.
Much of the uproar over "GTA" is based on incidents
in which retailers fail to enforce policies against selling the games to anyone under 17. McKenzie said GameStop has multiple procedures to ensure that employees check the identification of potential underage customers and applies the same rules to relevant accessories, such as "GTA" strategy books.
McKenzie said reservations for the $60 game (and a $90 special edition) were the third-strongest in GameStop history, trailing only two games released late last year - "Halo 3" and the most recent edition of "Madden NFL." He didn't expect "GTA IV" to overtake "Halo 3," but said it might squeak its way above "Madden."
More dramatically, Variety reported recently that sources close to Take-Two were estimating as much as $400 million in first-week sales, which would thump the $300 million-plus mark achieved by "Halo 3."
"It's not a nutty number, but it's a big number," McKenzie said of the $400 million figure. "Do I think it will get to that level? It'll be up there."
McKenzie said game reservations were running stronger for the Xbox 360 version than the PS3 version, probably because more than twice as many 360 consoles have been sold in the United States than PS3s. And he's hoping the GTA release will prompt many gamers to upgrade their original PS3 controllers to the recently released DualShock 3 that has vibration feedback.
A 68-page list of all Game-Stop stores with midnight events is on the chain's Web site (www.gamestop.com).
Some other retailers are staging midnight events in more limited numbers. Best Buy, for instance, has a list on its Web site that, as of Friday, showed only a handful of Bay Area locations and none in the South Bay.
The product's extraordinary popularity is why the GameStop specialty chain, which bills itself as the nation's largest game retailer of any kind, is planning midnight-release events at more than 3,500 of its 4,100 U.S. stores. The goal is to rake in the heftiest possible chunk of hundreds of millions of dollars in first-week sales of the game, as well as ringing up extra sales of consoles and accessories.
" 'GTA' is one of the very few titles that you can point to and say they really drive hardware sales," said Bob McKenzie, senior vice president of merchandising for GameStop, based in Grapevine, Texas.
The "Grand Theft Auto" series, published under the Rockstar Games label of Take-Two Interactive Software, is as wildly controversial as it is successful. The latest edition is being released for two consoles, Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3.
Early reviews indicate "GTA IV" - rated Mature, which means it's recommended for people 17 and older - extends the series' tradition of thuggery, shooting, murder and car chases in an overall environment of extremely coarse behavior. But the game's trendiness, which stems from its depth and artistic style as well as the raw action, attracts many children as strongly as it does adults.
Much of the uproar over "GTA" is based on incidents
in which retailers fail to enforce policies against selling the games to anyone under 17. McKenzie said GameStop has multiple procedures to ensure that employees check the identification of potential underage customers and applies the same rules to relevant accessories, such as "GTA" strategy books.
McKenzie said reservations for the $60 game (and a $90 special edition) were the third-strongest in GameStop history, trailing only two games released late last year - "Halo 3" and the most recent edition of "Madden NFL." He didn't expect "GTA IV" to overtake "Halo 3," but said it might squeak its way above "Madden."
More dramatically, Variety reported recently that sources close to Take-Two were estimating as much as $400 million in first-week sales, which would thump the $300 million-plus mark achieved by "Halo 3."
"It's not a nutty number, but it's a big number," McKenzie said of the $400 million figure. "Do I think it will get to that level? It'll be up there."
McKenzie said game reservations were running stronger for the Xbox 360 version than the PS3 version, probably because more than twice as many 360 consoles have been sold in the United States than PS3s. And he's hoping the GTA release will prompt many gamers to upgrade their original PS3 controllers to the recently released DualShock 3 that has vibration feedback.
A 68-page list of all Game-Stop stores with midnight events is on the chain's Web site (www.gamestop.com).
Some other retailers are staging midnight events in more limited numbers. Best Buy, for instance, has a list on its Web site that, as of Friday, showed only a handful of Bay Area locations and none in the South Bay.
