MUST READ!!!!
R* said San Andreas was a no show at E3 this year. What they really meant was, it won't be on the show floor. Because in Take2's investor luncheon, there was a lot of talk about San Andreas. We got it all right here.
Most people know that today is the first day of the biggest gaming convention in the world; the Electronics Entertainment Expo. And of course, Take2 was present among all the industry folk.
So lets skip all the technical mumbojumbo and get down to business shall we. Here are all of the basic San Andreas related topics discussed during the conference.
Vice City hitting Japan this quarter
Not really much to comment on here. It means what it means. Vice City should be released in Japan sometime soon.
San Andreas and The Warrior release dates
One of the questions asked during the webcast was whether or not Take2 felt having San Andreas and The Warriors both coming out so close together (San Andreas in Q4, The Warriors in Q1 next year) was a little too strong of a lineup. Take2 said no, of course, and that they felt it would all go very well. While this isn't really news, I just thought I'd mention it because it seems, given the context of the question, that The Warriors is coming along very nicely.
Next Gen Console games already underway
Take2 and its family developers have already started work on games for the Next Gen consoles; which they think could be hitting stores sometime in 2005.
Premium prices
We're aren't sure what this news means exactly. A question was asked during the webcast about whether Take2 was going to take San Andreas off the $49.99 price. We don't know whether he was asking if they are raising or lowering the price. But either way, the answer Take2 gave was that they feel it is more profitable to keep the price where it is, but that they still have not made any final decisions. Their main reasoning was that the GTA games provide more hours of gameplay than most other games.
PS2 Exclusive....at launch.
Thats right. During the follow-up questions, one person asked whether San Andreas was PS2 exclusive. Which it is. But only at launch. What this means is, just like GTA3 and Vice City, once Sony's contract is up, R* can easily port San Andreas to Xbox.
Another point that was expressed about this was the PC version. The PC version has not been announced yet but like before the exclusive Sony deal has no effect on the PC version being distributed. So we have no doubt at all that there will be a PC version in the months following San Andreas' PS2 release.
Online Gaming
At the very end of the webcast, a question was brought up about Take2's future in online gaming. The man who answered the question was sure to let us know that they are spending more and more money to expand the technology, and that they are very excited about onling gaming, and that they will definetly be there. There was mention of R* and the hardcore fans but its very hard to distinguish. I think we can all take that as a hint to an Onling GTA sometime in the future (if not with San Andreas).
This next bit of information is, upon reviewing the investors wording, to be considered nothing but SPECULATION.
The biggest news about San Andreas yet... MULTIPLE CHARACTERS!
Thats right. During the webcast a video was shown to all that were present. Us, obviously not being present, sadly didn't get to see it (We couldn't even hear the audio since the webcast was muted during any videos) but we did get to hear the questions about it afterwards. It seems something was shown in the video to indicate multiple characters. One man asked why R* was moving away from the ol' "one playable character" theme of the past. R* explained how they are just expanding upon the series with the addition of multiple playable characters. And a great addition at that.
Thats all the news on San Andreas that was in the webcast. There was alot of other stuff about some future titles and sequels too. So if you still wanna check it out, click here.
