Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars coming to PSP

Rockstar Games announced that Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, will be making its way to the PSP this fall. Developed by Rockstar Leeds, in conjunction with series creator Rockstar North, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars will be available at retail on UMD and digitally from the PlayStation Network in North America and Europe this fall.

No details on what the differences between this new version and the DS version are - beyond the lack of touch screen support. No doubt Rockstar hopes that the PSP game will do better than the DS version did earlier this year - despite winning over most critics.

Rockstar’s Agent formally announced

Rockstar Games formally announced Agent, a game that was mentioned in Sony’s E3 press conference this week. Unfortunately there’s the same amount of information in the announcement that there was in the press conference - almost nothing. Nothing like being coy with us, eh RockStar?

So here’s what we know: Agent sounds like a third-person, open-world, stealth action game involving spies. The game takes players on a “paranoid journey into the world of counter-intelligence, espionage and political assassinations during the height of the Cold War at the end of the 1970s,” according to Rock Star.
We also know that it is a PS3 exclusive that Sony is pretty excited about. And why wouldn’t they be? Grand Theft Auto moved mountains for Sony and most games with the name Rockstar on them tend to sell systems - unless it’s on another platform like GTA IV was. Ahem.

The release does offer a quote from Rockstar co-founder Sam Houser, though: “We have always enjoyed making action games, and with Agent we are making what we believe will be the ultimate action game. Agent is a game we have wanted to make for a long time. The team in Edinburgh is doing an amazing job combining intense action, atmosphere and story in a great period setting to create something that feels quite unique. We cannot wait for people to experience this game.”

No date and no further details at this time, but we’ll keep you posted.

Rockstar Gives Red Dead Revolver a Sequel

Back when Rockstar’s spaghetti western game, Red Dead Revolver, first came out back in ‘04, it was pretty well received by critics and gamers alike. Almost immediately, rumors started circulating on a possible sequel in the works. As the years passed, though, focus shifted away from any potential Red Dead sequel and onto new projects for a new generation of consoles. Today, though, Rockstar proved that it had not forgotten the fans of the Old West shooter, officially announcing the development of Red Dead Redemption, currently scheduled for a Fall 2009 release on the Xbox 360 and PS3.

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The Rundown: Dec. 15, 2008

2008 is slowly fading to black. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. Here’s today’s news..

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GTA IV Games For Windows Revealed

Microsoft is celebrating the second anniversary of the Games for Windows initiative this month with the news that Grand Theft Auto IV will debut on the PC this November exclusively as a Games for Windows-branded title. Microsoft promises a revitalized Games for Windows – LIVE experience, including expanded online matches, DirectX 10 graphics, and new LIVE features such as a redesigned game interface, out-of-game client and marketplace.

In addition to Grand Theft Auto IV, several titles will take advantage of Games for Windows – LIVE, including Fallout 3, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II and James Bond: Quantum of Solace.

While it is certainly good news that PC gamers will get Games For windows enabled game titles later this year, it still feels like Microsoft is not whole-heartedly behind the PC platform. When we attended E3 in July this fact was painfully apparent at the Games For Windows party that no one attended and where barely any games were on display.

Take-Two and Housers For Sale

Those old Houser boys are worth their weight in gold if you ask game industry executives around the world and show a potential problem for Take-Two next year when their contracts expire. Some hypothesize that this was one of the key reasons why EA has backed off acquiring Take-Two among other reasons. Analysts in particular are making great hay of this fact today, including the outspoken Wedbush Morgan analyst and part-time messiah Michael Pachter.

According to Pachter, Sam and Dan Houser could entertain other offers in February, perhaps moving on to work for another company like EA.. or Activision… or Ubisoft.. basically anyone willing to bend over backward to sign them. Take Two could learn the terrible lesson that EA learned when a number of high profile developers from the Medal of Honor team broke away to form Infinity Ward. That company went on to create some serious competition with Call of Duty, a game franchise that has gone on to beat the ever-loving piss out of the team’s former franchise.

While the brothers aren’t developers, they are the creativity (and some say the tyranny) behind the development of the Grand Theft Auto series. They are like Hollywood producers who help form and shape development into a highly polished, commercially viable product that appeals to its rabid and hardcore fan base. But imagine if the Housers walk away to EA or Activision and help create some competition for GTA. Imagine if THQ signed them and they helped shape the future of Saint’s Row or some other high profile action game.. It is all a possibility and it leaves Take-Two even more vulnerable because GTA is the company’s top source of income, or as we call it around these parts - bread and butter..

Source: GI.biz

Hot Coffee Fails to Make A Splash

It seems that Hot Coffee is finally running out of steam. Of the millions of people who bought the GTA: San Andreas with the Hot Coffee “hidden sex scenes” included in their copy, exactly 2,676 were tipped off by their lawyer friends offended enough to file a class action lawsuit.

The relatively anticlimactic resolution of the claims sees Take-Two being ordered to pay less than $30,000 ($5 to $35 per claim). The irony in all of this is that the lawyers who brought the class action on behalf of the plaintiffs are asking for more than $1.3 million.

“It doesn’t typically go that way,” said Mary J. Davis, a law professor at the University of Kentucky who has studied this type of litigation.  “To have legal fees dwarf a settlement payout is sort of backwards.”