After Vlad's murder, Niko and Roman are kidnapped by members of the Liberty City
Bratva, on order of
Mikhail Faustin and his associate,
Dimitri Rascalov. Faustin, not bothered by the murder of Vlad, hires Niko, who quickly learns that he's a psychopath when he orders Niko to kill the son of Kenny Petrović, the most powerful man in the Liberty City Bratva. Dimitri then orders Niko to assassinate Faustin, and when Niko meets with Dimitri to collect on the assassination, Dimitri betrays Niko to his angry former employer Ray Bulgarin.
Immediately afterwards, Niko and Roman are forced to escape to Bohan when their apartment and taxi company are destroyed in arson attacks by Dimitri's men. To make ends meet Niko takes jobs for former gangbanger
Manny Escuela, Bohan drug dealer
Elizabeta Torres, Irish mobster
Patrick "Packie" McReary, and Algonquin drug dealer
Playboy X. Niko also becomes an errand boy for both Mafia Capo
Ray Boccino and crooked Deputy Police Commissioner
Francis McReary.
However, things go poorly in Bohan: one of the drug deals that Niko is working for Elizabeta turns out to be a
sting and another is busted. After the latter incident, Niko's current girlfriend Michelle then reveals that she works for a government agency and
entraps Niko into working for Michelle's agency, known only by its cover:
United Liberty Paper. Niko kills several known or suspected terrorists for the agency in exchange for the promise of assistance in finding the man who betrayed Niko's unit. The Liberty City Police Department begins to close in on Elizabeta, who kills Manny when he attempts a
citizens arrest. Soon afterwards Elizabeta is arrested, and sentenced to 300 years imprisonment.
Niko assists Boccino in a conflict diamond deal with diamond dealer
Isaac Roth, which goes badly and leads to the diamonds and the money being stolen by
Luis Lopez and
Johnny Klebitz, respectively. In exchange for Niko's help, Boccino locates
Florian Cravic, the man that Niko has been searching for. However, when Niko confronts Cravic he discovers that he's changed his name to Bernie Crane and has become an effeminate homosexual, and he determines that Bernie is not responsible for his unit's betrayal, leaving one remaining suspect:
Darko Brevic. Niko also works for both Playboy X and Playboy's mentor
Dwayne Forge. After Niko kills Playboy's business partners as a favour for Forge, the relationship between Playboy and Forge becomes so poisonous that each asks Niko to kill the other, leaving Niko a choice between the two.
While in Algonquin, Niko develops a strong connection with the McReary family, including Packie's older brothers
Gerald and
Derrick, and their sister
Kate, with whom he begins a non-sexual relationship. Together Niko, Packie, Derrick, and
"Saint" Michael Keane, heist the Bank of Liberty in Algonquin. However, the robbery does not go smoothly; Michael is killed and the others are forced to shoot their way out past the police to escape. After the robbery, Niko works with Gerry McReary to destroy the relationship between the Ancelotti Crime Family and their Albanian muscle-men.
Meanwhile, Derrick spends most of his share on drugs and alcohol, and sends Niko to eliminate former partners he believes are informing on him. Francis soon becomes concerned that Derrick's drug behaviour could ruin his plans to become police commissioner, and tells Niko to kill Derrick. Soon after, Derrick asks Niko to kill Francis, which gives Niko a choice between the two. In either case Niko, is invited to the funeral and informed that Gerry has been arrested.
After his incarceration, Gerry contacts Niko and asks him to help in the kidnapping of
Gracie, the daughter of the Don of the Ancelloti Family, in exchange for a ransom of the stolen diamonds. However after exchanging Gracie to
"Gay" Tony Prince for the diamonds, Niko and Packie are surprised by Ray Bulgarin, who claims the diamonds are his. In the ensuing gunfight the diamonds are thrown into a passing dumptruck and lost.
Niko also does work for the Pegorino family in Alderney, mainly with Associate
Phil Bell, stealing heroin, and later for Don
Jimmy Pegorino. This leads to a war between the Pegorinos, Pavanos, and Ancellottis. Eventually, Niko is sent to kill Ray Boccino because Pegorino is convinced that he is an informant.
United Liberty Paper eventually locates Darko Brevic and brings him to Liberty City as a final reward. Niko confronts Darko, who is now a drug-addicted wreck, and learns that Darko betrayed the group for $1,000. Niko then has to choose to either execute or spare Darko. Having dealt with his past, Niko is summoned by Pegorino, who demands one final favour: to help with an extremely lucrative deal on the heroin in collusion with Dimitri Rascalov.
[22]
The story then features two possible endings depending on the choice made by the player at this point in the game: to strike a Deal with Dimitri or exact Revenge on him.
- Deal
If the player chooses to go through with the Deal, Niko meets Phil to retrieve the money once Dimitri delivers the heroin to another location. However Dimitri takes the heroin for himself instead, and Niko and Phil are forced to fight to escape, but retrieve the drug money regardless. Kate, who was against making the deal, is disappointed with Niko and refuses to attend Roman and Mallorie's wedding with Niko. At the wedding, an assassin sent by Dimitri kills Roman with a stray bullet as Niko disarms and kills him. A devastated and vengeful Niko - with Little Jacob's help - follows some henchmen to where Dimitri and Pegorino are hiding. There he witnesses Dimitri kill Pegorino out of greed before escaping in a helicopter. Niko chases Dimitri to Happiness Island, where he kills him in the shadow of the Statue of Happiness. The story ends with Niko concerned for the well-being of his soul. After the end credits, Mallorie reveals to Niko in a phone call that she is pregnant with Roman's son, and later Kate calls Niko, saying that she will be there for him.
- Revenge
If the player chooses to exact
Revenge, Niko ambushes Dimitri on the cargo ship
Platypus - the same cargo ship that brought Niko into Liberty City - and executes him. In the aftermath, Roman and Mallorie's wedding takes place, but Pegorino, furious after Niko's betrayal, commits a
drive-by shooting outside the church, targets Niko, but ends up killing Kate. However, now that Pegorino has lost his ally Dimitri and angered both Niko (and thereby his many friends) and the five mafia families, the entire underworld of Liberty City wants him dead and he goes into hiding. With Little Jacob's help and Roman's support, Niko follows some henchmen to Pegorino's location where Niko attempts to kill him, but Pegorino escapes. Niko chases and executes Pegorino in the shadow of the Statue of Happiness. After the end credits, Roman reveals to Niko in a phone call that Mallorie is pregnant, and if it is a girl, they will call her Kate, in memory of Niko's girlfriend. Packie later calls him and mourns over the loss of his sister, telling Niko that she never did anything wrong, but it was her brothers that did.
Setting[edit]
GTA IV's rendition of Liberty City closely resembles modern New York City.
[24]
Grand Theft Auto IV takes place in 2008, in a redesigned version of Liberty City consisting of four boroughs, based on four of the boroughs of New York City.
[24] Broker is the equivalent of
Brooklyn;
Queens is
Dukes;
Bronx is
Bohan and
Manhattan is
Algonquin. Adjacent to the city is the independent state of
Alderney, based on Northern
New Jersey and named after the
Channel Island of
the same name. The developers omitted a
Staten Island-esque area, believing that gameplay based in such an area would not be fun.
[25] There are three minor islands present: Charge Island (based loosely on
Randall's Island), Colony Island (based on
Roosevelt Island), and Happiness Island (based on
Liberty Island and complete with a parody of the
Statue of Liberty called the Statue of Happiness). Initially, the city's bridges are locked down due to a terrorist threat, and the player is constantly pursued by police if they are crossed, but eventually the blockades are lifted and the player is able to cross the
Broker,
Algonquin and
Northwood Heights bridges and explore the rest of the city. The "Francis International Airport" is based on several New York City-area airports, most notably
LaGuardia and
JFK, however in a departure from past GTA games, exploring the tarmac area of the airport outside of missions usually carries a penalty of a high wanted level being triggered.
Main characters[edit]
The characters that appear in
Grand Theft Auto IV are diverse and relative to the respective boroughs of Liberty City they are based in; belonging to various gangs and ethnic groups. The player controls
Niko Bellic, an eastern European veteran of an unknown war. According to Dan Houser, virtually none of the
characters from the previous games would return, as "most of the characters we liked were dead,"
[25] further evidenced by in-game graffiti bidding farewell to these characters.
[22]
Soundtrack[edit]
Like previous games in the
GTA series,
Grand Theft Auto IV features a soundtrack that can be heard through radio stations while the player is in a vehicle. Liberty City is serviced by 19 radio stations, three of which are
talk radio stations. The other stations feature music from a large range of genres. There are notable inclusions to the game's soundtrack, such as tracks from
Jean Michel Jarre,
Genesis,
David Bowie,
Smashing Pumpkins,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Seryoga,
Bob Marley,
Don Omar,
The Who,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Queen,
Black Sabbath,
Philip Glass,
Simian Mobile Disco,
Nas,
Ne-Yo,
Kanye West,
R. Kelly,
Lloyd,
Miles Davis,
Loose Ends,
Elton John,
ZZ Top,
R.E.M.,
MC Lyte and
Barry White.
The theme song of
Grand Theft Auto IV is "Soviet Connection" composed by
Michael Hunter, who also composed the theme for
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
[26] People who provide voices for the radio DJs include fashion designer
Karl Lagerfeld, musicians
Iggy Pop,
[27] Femi Kuti,
[28] Jimmy Gestapo[29] and
Ruslana,
[30] and real-life radio talk show host
Lazlow Jones.
[31] Saturday Night Live actors
Bill Hader and
Jason Sudeikis appear on the liberal and conservative radio talk shows respectively, with
Fred Armisen playing several guests on Lazlow's "Integrity 2.0". Numerous other comedians, including
Jim Norton,
Patrice O'Neal,
Rick Shapiro, and
Robert Kelly, as well as radio hosts
Opie & Anthony appeared on the radio and/or as characters in-game.
The game uses a similar music system to that of
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. In other games in the series, each radio station was essentially a single looped sound file, playing the same songs, announcements and advertisements in the same order each time. With the radio stations in
Grand Theft Auto IV, each sound file is held separately, and sequenced randomly, allowing songs to be played in different orders, announcements to songs to be different each time, and plot events to be mentioned on the stations. Certain songs are also edited to incorporate references to the fictional Liberty City.
[26]
Following a partnership between Rockstar Games and
Amazon.com, players are able to purchase real world
MP3s through
GTA IV's in-game mobile phone.
[32] Players are able to mark radio songs that they like by dialling ZIT-555-0100 on Niko's phone. They will then receive a text message providing the name of the song and the artist. If registered on Rockstar's 'Social Club' website, a player will also receive a real world e-mail with a link to an Amazon.com playlist where all of the player's marked songs will be listed and available to purchase.
[33]
Development[edit]
Mural ad for the game on a wall in New York City, July 2007.
Work on
Grand Theft Auto IV began in November 2004, almost immediately after the release of
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
[25] Around 150 game developers worked on
Grand Theft Auto IV,
[34] led by core members of the
Grand Theft Auto III team.
[35] The game uses Rockstar's own
RAGE game engine, which was previously used in
Rockstar Table Tennis, in combination with the
Euphoria game animation engine.
[36] Instead of pre-written animations, Euphoria uses
procedural animation to control the way the player moves, enabling character movements to be more realistic.
[37] The Euphoria engine also enables
NPCs to react in a realistic way to the player's actions. In one preview, a player knocked an NPC out of a window and the character grabbed onto a ledge to stop himself from falling.
[38] The game also uses middleware from
Image Metrics to facilitate intricate facial expressions and ease the process of incorporating lip-synching.
[39] Foliage in the game is produced through
SpeedTree.
[40]
Grand Theft Auto IV sees a shift in the series to a more realistic and detailed style and tone,
[25] partly a result of the transition to consoles which offered
high-definition graphics and the new and improved capabilities of such consoles.
[35] Rockstar co-founder
Dan Houser said "what we're taking as our watchword on [
GTA IV] is the idea of what high definition actually means. Not just in terms of graphics, which obviously we are achieving, but in terms of all aspects of the design. [...] You know, trying to make something more realistic, more held together, but still retaining the overall coherence that the other games had."
[25] Art director Aaron Garbut said one of the reasons they decided to set the game in New York because "we all knew what an amazing, diverse, vibrant, cinematic city it is. [...] And since we were hoping to push the detail, variety and life, for lack of a better word, to such a degree it seemed that basing the game in a city so synonymous with these things was a great fit."
[41] Dan Houser added "because we were working in high definition and we knew we'd need a shitload of research, we wanted to be somewhere where we had a foothold."
[35] The developers consciously avoided creating a block for block recreation of New York City, Dan Houser said "what we've always tried to do is make a thing that looks real and has the qualities of a real environment, but is also fun from a game design perspective."
[25] The
Grand Theft Auto IV rendition of Liberty City is far more detailed and is the largest individual city in the
Grand Theft Auto series.
[42] Although smaller than San Andreas, Liberty City is comparable to it in terms of scope when "the level of verticality of the city, the number of buildings you can go into, and the level of detail in those buildings" are taken into account.
[42] The goal for Liberty City was to have no dead spots or irrelevant spaces, such as the wide open deserts in San Andreas.
[25] To achieve a realistic environment, the Rockstar North team, based in
Edinburgh, Scotland, made two trips to New York for research, one at the start of the project (which is done with every
GTA game) and another smaller one further into development.
[41] A full-time research team, based in New York, handled further requests for information ranging from the ethnic minority of a neighbourhood to videos of traffic patterns.
[35]
The story of
Grand Theft Auto IV was written by
Dan Houser and Rupert Humphries.
[22] Unlike previous
Grand Theft Auto games which have a strong cultural or cinematic influence, "[
GTA IVdoesn't] really have any cinematic influences",
[25] said Dan Houser, "we were consciously trying to go, well, if videogames are going to develop into the next stage, then the thing isn't to try and do a loving tribute or reference other stuff. It's to reference the actual place itself."
[35] Houser also said, "In terms of the character, we wanted something that felt fresh and new and not something that was obviously derived from [a] movie. [...] Maybe [we] could do something ourselves that would live alongside that stuff."
[35]
Music supervisor Ivan Pavlovich said "[we had] to pick the songs that make New York today what it is, but make sure they won't feel dated by the time the game comes out."
[43] The developers contacted over 2,000 people in order to obtain recording and publishing rights.
[26] They even hired a private investigator to locate the relatives of late Skatt Bros. member
Sean Delaney to license the band's song, "Walk the Night".
[44] Citing sources close to the deals,
Billboard reported that Rockstar paid as much as $5,000 per composition and another $5,000 per master recording per track.
[45] Developers originally considered letting players purchase music by going to an in-game
record shop and for Niko to have an
MP3 player, but both ideas were cut.
[26] DJ Green Lanternproduced tracks exclusively for the game's hip-hop radio station The Beat 102.7.
[45] Record label owner and record producer Bobby Konders, who hosts the in-game radio station Massive B Soundsystem 96.9, went through the extra effort of flying to
Jamaica to get
dancehall artists to re-record tracks to make references to the boroughs of Liberty City.
[45]
GTA IV's rendition of Liberty City closely resembles modern New York City
[24]
The Corporate Vice-President of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business division,
Peter Moore, announced at E3 2006 that the game would appear on
Xbox 360, by rolling up his sleeve to reveal a
GTA IV temporary tattoo.
[46] Rockstar Games initially appeared to be committed to the original 16 October 2007 release date; however, Wedbush Morgan analyst
Michael Pachter suggested that Take-Two may choose to delay the release of the game in order to boost its financial results for 2008 and to avoid competing with the release of other highly anticipated titles, such as
Halo 3.
[47]Rockstar responded by saying that
Grand Theft Auto IV was still on track for release in "late October".
[48] On 2 August 2007, Take-Two announced that
Grand Theft Auto IV would miss its original release date of 16 October 2007 contrary to their previous statements, and would be delayed to their second fiscal quarter (February–April) of 2008.
[49] In a later conference call with investors, Take-Two's Strauss Zelnick attributed the delay to "almost strictly technological problems ... not problems, but challenges."
[50] It was revealed that technical difficulties with the
PlayStation 3 version of the game contributed to the delay, along with storage problems on the
Xbox 360.
[51] On 24 January 2008, Take-Two announced that
Grand Theft Auto IVwould be released on 29 April 2008.
[52] As the release date approached, Rockstar Games and Take-Two
marketed the game heavily through various forms, including television ads, Internet video, billboards, viral marketing, and a redesigned website. A special edition of the game was also released for both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
[53] At a Take-Two shareholder meeting on 18 April 2008, Take-Two CEO Ben Feder announced that
GTA IV had already "
gone gold" and was "in production and in trucks en route to retailers".
[54] The game was eventually released for the
PlayStation 3 and
Xbox 360 video game consoles in Europe, North America, and Oceania on 29 April 2008,
[52] and in Japan on 30 October 2008.
[55] A
Microsoft Windows version of the game was released in North America on 2 December 2008 and in Europe on 3 December 2008.
[2][56][57] It was made available on
Steam on 4 January 2009.
[58]Overall,
Grand Theft Auto IV took over 1000 people and more than three and a half years to complete, with a total cost estimated at approximately $100 million, making it one of the most expensive games ever developed
[59] (as of 2012 only
Star Wars: The Old Republic has been reported to have a higher development cost than that of
Grand Theft Auto IV).
[60][61]
Episodic content[edit]
The cover art for
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City.
The Lost and Damned features a new central character,
Johnny Klebitz, a member of Liberty City's biker gang The Lost, which was featured in several
GTA IV missions. Dan Houser stated the episode shows "a different side of Liberty City".
[66] The Ballad of Gay Tony also features a new central character,
Luis Fernando Lopez, an assistant to nightclub owner Tony "Gay Tony" Prince, and follows him as he resolves the conflicts of his friends, family, and boss.
[62]
Jeronimo Barrera, Vice President of Product Development for Rockstar Games, has said that the episodes are experiments because they are not sure that there are enough users with access to online content on the Xbox 360.
[69] Take-Two Interactive's
Chief Financial Officer, Lainie Goldstein revealed that Microsoft was paying a total of $50 million for the first two episodes.
[70]
In January 2010 Rockstar announced that the DLC as well as
Episodes From Liberty City would be made available for the
PlayStation 3 and
Microsoft Windows on 13 April 2010 in North America
[67][71] and 16 April 2010 in Europe.
[67]
Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition, including the original
Grand Theft Auto IV and its two episodic expansions, was listed on online stores
[72]before being confirmed by Rockstar. The compilation was released on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Windows on 26 October 2010 in North America, and 29 October in Europe.
[73]
The
Rockstar Games Social Club is a web site that displays the gameplay statistics of registered users and feature competitions and awards based on player activity within the game.
[74] The Social Club web site was announced on 27 March 2008 and launched on 17 April 2008. The main features of Social Club launched on the same date of the game itself 29 April 2008. Social Club will also provide online features for Rockstar's latest
Midnight Club game,
Midnight Club: Los Angeles. Social Club consists of multiple parts. It initially included the LCPD Police Blotter, The Story Gang, The 100% Club, The Hall Of Fame, The Liberty City Marathon and The Zit.
In an interview with
PlayStation World magazine, Rockstar mentioned that they will "heavily support"
Sony's
PlayStation Home, a community-based service for the
PlayStation Network. Rockstar also mentioned that visitors to their PlayStation Home apartment would receive 'goodies' such as clothing for their
avatar and items and decorations for their own PlayStation Home apartment.
[75]Rockstar also announced that users in the
Xbox Live will gain exclusives in the form of Downloadable Contents and a multiplayer modding tool.
[76]
Windows version[edit]
The Windows version of
GTA IV includes a replay editor. This screenshot shows the Clips interface which is used to capture game footage.
| [hide]System requirements |
|---|
| Minimum | Recommended |
|---|
| Windows[2] |
|---|
| Operating system | Windows Vista Service Pack 1 / Windows XP Service Pack 2 / Windows 7 Service Pack 1 |
|---|
| CPU | Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 1.8Ghz or AMD Athlon X2 64 3600+ 2.4Ghz | Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4Ghz or AMD Phenom X3 8400 2.1Ghz |
|---|
| Memory | 1 GB (1.5 GB for Vista) | 2 GB (2.5 GB for Vista) |
|---|
| Hard drive space | 16 GB of free space | 18 GB of free space |
|---|
| Graphics hardware | NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS 256 MB or ATi Radeon X1900 256 MB | NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GS 512 MB or ATi Radeon HD 3870 512 MB |
|---|
| Sound hardware | 100% DirectX 9.0c compliant card |
|---|
| Network | Internet connection required for activation and multiplayer |
|---|
|
On 6 August 2008, Rockstar announced that a
Microsoft Windows version was in development by
Rockstar North and
Rockstar Toronto.
[1][56] The game was originally announced for release in North America on 18 November 2008 and in Europe on 21 November 2008 but was later pushed back to 2 and 3 December 2008, respectively.
[2][56][57]
It contains expanded features,
[56] including traffic density control,
draw distanceconfigurations and a replay editor.
[77][78][79][80] The replay editor allows players to record and edit game clips, videos can then be uploaded to Rockstar's Social Club website.
[80] It utilises
Games for Windows - Live for online play and supports 32 players for multiplayer.
[18][81] SecuROM protection is utilised and a one time online activation is required in order to play the game.
[82]
Reception[edit]
Critical reception[edit]
Grand Theft Auto IV has received universal acclaim from video game critics. The review aggregator
Metacritic rates its as the best
PlayStation 3 and
Xbox 360 game of all time, as well as being the second highest-rated video game on the website, falling behind only
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
[110] Grand Theft Auto IV is the fourth highest rated game on
Gamerankings and the fifth highest on GameRatio. Ahead of its worldwide release, most publications were not sent copies of the game. Instead, reviewers had to play the game on Rockstar premises or in booked hotel rooms.
[111][112]
The May 2008 issue of
Official Xbox Magazine (UK) published the first
Grand Theft Auto IV review, giving the game the maximum score of 10/10. The magazine also stated that the game has an "amazingly realistic world; stunning action set pieces; genuinely engrossing storyline; hugely entertaining multiplayer;" and that it is "vast in every respect."
[108] PlayStation Official Magazine (UK) also gave the game 10/10 in their May 2008 issue, describing the game as "a masterpiece that improves on all GTA's best bits."
[31] Xbox World 360 gave the game a 98% rating, the highest it has ever given to any game, mentioning the game was "everything we were entitled to expect, and yet somehow impossibly more."
[113] GameSpot gave the game a perfect 10,
[101][114] making it the first game since 2001 that GameSpot had rated perfect. The review called the game "compelling", with a "plethora of online multiplayer features" and stated that
GTA IV is "undoubtedly the best
Grand Theft Auto yet."
[101]
Hilary Goldstein of
IGN gave the game a 10/10 score, with the game earning 10/10 in each individual category: presentation, sound, graphics, gameplay, and lasting appeal. It is the first game in the publication's history to receive straight-10 subscores across the board. Goldstein called the game "just as big a leap forward as
Grand Theft Auto III, albeit in subtler ways", and said it "sets a new benchmark for open-world games", with "no one major weak aspect". Goldstein's only serious criticism was for "the occasional flaw in the cover system", but the review concluded with the statement that "We don't give 10s often—just to games that merit the score."
[106]
The British newspaper
Daily Star gave it a positive review, saying: "This could be a console defining title, one that in years to come people will remember as the stand-out of the era."
[115] The New York Times wrote a favourable review as well, calling it a "violent, intelligent, profane, endearing, obnoxious, sly, richly textured and thoroughly compelling work of cultural satire disguised as fun."
[27] The film magazine
Empire gave the game a perfect 5/5 in its game reviews section, calling it "damn-near perfect".
[116]
Despite the almost unanimous praise given to
GTA IV, the game has received some criticism, particularly its
Windows port.
[117] A review in
Ars Technica states that the game "...[is] not perfect. It does not deserve unquestioned, unadulterated praise. In many ways, the slight regression of the series from
San Andreas is surprising: there are fewer vehicles, weapons, and story missions, less character customisation, and even the size of the city itself is smaller."
[118] GameSpot noted that there are occasional problems with friendly AI and avoiding the police being "a little too easy."
[101] There were some minor complaints with the game's cover system, which reviewers noted, stumbled in box-filled environments and the stickiness of cover points being an issue.
[96][106][108] The occasional presence of noticeable pop-in was also criticised.
[92][96][108]
Commercial success[edit]
Shares of
Take-Two Interactive gained 3.4% amid positive reviews before the game's launch.
[120] Scott Hillis of
Reuters said first week sales of the game were expected to reach $400 million.
[120] Some observers suggested that
GTA IV's success could dampen the box office for the 2 May 2008 release of
Iron Man, setting a precedent where movie studios will begin browsing video game release dates to check for conflicts.
[121] Matt Richtel of
The New York Times said the game's release was "expected to be one of the biggest video game debuts ever" and said 5 million copies of the game were expected to be sold in the first two weeks.
[122] Analyst
Michael Pachter predicted the game would sell 11 to 13 million units by the end of 2008. Pachter also expected
Grand Theft Auto IV to represent 3.2% of all U.S. and European software sales for 2008 and for lifetime sales of the game to reach 16 to 19 million.
[123] Analyst Evan Wilson predicted that
Grand Theft Auto IV would have opening week sales of $550 million.
[123]
Upon release,
Grand Theft Auto IV claimed two entertainment industry sales records, posting the best single-day and seven-day sales totals for a video game.
[124] The game sold more than 3.6 million copies on its first day of availability, while also selling 6 million copies in the first week of availability (garnering $500 million in sales).
[125][126] In the United Kingdom, the game sold 631,000 copies on its first day of release,
[127][128] making it the fastest-selling game in a 24 hour period within that region, according to
Chart-Track.
[129] The previous record holder in the UK,
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, sold 501,000 copies within 24 hours.
[128][129][130] During the first five days of availability, the title sold 1.85 million units on the Xbox 360 and 1 million on the PlayStation 3 in the United States, according to the
NPD Group;
[131] in the United Kingdom the Xbox 360 version sold 514,000 copies and the PlayStation 3 version sold 413,000, according to Chart-Track.
[128][132] The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of
Grand Theft Auto IV are the fifth and eighth best-selling games of 2008 in the United States respectively. The Xbox 360 version sold in excess of 3.29 million, while the PlayStation 3 version sold in excess of 1.89 million for a combined 5.18 million copies in 2008 in the region.
[133] GameStop and
EB Games reported that the game led in sales the first week after its release, noting that its stores in
Puerto Rico led all districts in pre-release reservations and sales 48 hours after its release.
[134]
On 13 May 2008,
Grand Theft Auto IV broke the
Guinness World Records for "Highest grossing video game in 24 hours" and "Highest Revenue Generated by an Entertainment Product in 24 Hours". It sold 3.6 million copies on day one, which equalled roughly $310 million in revenue. For first day sales it also broke the record of "Fastest-selling video game in 24 hours", previously held by
Halo 3 at $170 million,
[135] however, its record was broken in November 2009 by
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
By 31 May 2008, the title has sold over 11 million copies to retailers and 8.5 million have been sold through to consumers, according to Take-Two Interactive.
[136] According to the NPD Group and
GfK Chart-Track, the game has sold 4.711 million units in the US and 1.582 million in the UK, for a total of 6.293 million units as of 1 August 2008.
[137] As of 16 August 2008, the title has sold over 10 million copies through to consumers, according to Take-Two Interactive.
[138] In its first four days of availability in Japan, the title sold 133,000 copies on the PlayStation 3 and 34,000 on the Xbox 360, according to
Media Create.
[139]
Sales for the Windows version of the game were considerably less successful. According to NPD Group the game debuted at #7 of their weekly top ten.
[140] One week later, the game disappeared completely from the top ten published by NPD Group.
[141][142]
On 3 March 2010, Take-Two Games announced that
Grand Theft Auto IV has sold 15 million units globally.
[143] On 9 June 2010, Take-Two announced that
Grand Theft Auto IV had sold over 17 million copies.
[144] On 10 March 2011, Take-Two announced that
Grand Theft Auto IV had sold over 20 million copies and Grand Theft Auto series has now sold over 100 million copies.
[145] By September 2011, the game had sold over 22 million copies.
[4] As of late 2012
Grand Theft Auto IV has sold over 25 million copies, according to the
Game Informer cover reveal of
Grand Theft Auto V.
[146]
| [show]List of awards for Grand Theft Auto IV |
|---|
Michael Hollick, voice of Niko Bellic, won a Spike TV award for "Best Performance by a Human Male"
Following the critical acclaim it received on its release,
Grand Theft Auto IV has received numerous awards from various critics and publications. It received several
Game of the Year awards, from gaming media outlets such as
Spike TV,
[177] Giant Bomb,
[172] Kotaku,
[174] and
GameTrailers,
[162] as well as mainstream publications, like
The New York Times,
[180] the
Los Angeles Times,
[181] and
Time magazine.
[182] The game has garnered over 60 Game of the Year recognitions from major publications, more than any other game that year.
GTA IV also received seven nominations at the
5th British Academy Video Games Awards (
BAFTA Games Awards),
[184] and three nominations at the 9th Annual
Game Developers Choice Awards,
[185] but did not win any of them.
Controversies[edit]
The version of
GTA IV released in Australia and New Zealand was edited to remove content to allow the game to meet the requirements of
the Australian classification system.
[187] However, the game was resubmitted to the New Zealand
OFLC by Stan Calif, a 21-year-old student who was unhappy that New Zealand received an edited version of the game as a result of Australian censorship laws. The unedited version was subsequently given an R18 rating and cleared for sale in New Zealand.
[188] The PC version of
Grand Theft Auto IV released in Australia is reported to be unedited, identical to that of other international releases, under the MA15+ rating.
[189] The PS3 and the Xbox 360 versions of the game have since been updated to be completely uncensored while the complete edition has the console version uncut for the first time at retail.
There have been reports in the United Kingdom and the United States of crimes perpetrated against people purchasing
Grand Theft Auto IV, as well as employees of stores selling the game.
[190][191][192] One of these incidents, an attack near a
Gamestation store in
Croydon,
London was later reported to be an unrelated argument between two groups of people leaving a pub
[193]and the story has been referred to as a "
media panic."
[194]
Six teenagers were arrested in June 2008 after engaging in a crime spree in
New Hyde Park, New York, assaulting and robbing several people, and attempting a
carjacking. According to police, the teens claimed that they were "inspired" by
Grand Theft Auto IV.
[195]
The first downloadable episode
The Lost and Damned has a brief scene containing full-frontal male nudity, uncommon in video games.
[196]
