Rockstar, developers of the extremely popular Grand Theft Auto series of games, and their published Take Two, have announced the next episode in the GTA IV saga, named ‘The Balad of Gay Tony’. The expansion will be available as downloadable content via Xbox Live, but will also be bundled with the game’s previous expansion on a disk for sale by retailers, both exclusively for the Xbox 360.
Downloadable and disk
The new expansion will be available for download closer to the end of the year for 1600 Microsoft Points, which will require the original GTA IV game disk, and will also be available bundled on disk with the first expansion of the game, The Lost and Damned, and will not require the original game to be played. The expansion bundle disk will be called Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City. As a point of interest, The Lost and Damned broke Xbox Live download records upon its release, clocking more than 300,000 downloads in its first two weeks of being available.
“Liberty City is the most vibrant game world we’ve created yet. The episodic structure has allowed us to interweave stories, gameplay and atmosphere in a whole new way. The team at Rockstar North have yet again surpassed themselves, and made something that is both epic and very innovative. This episode’s focus on high-end night life contrasts with the biker gangs portrayed in The Lost and Damned, whilst giving us a lot of new gameplay possibilities.” said Founder of Rockstar Games, Sam Houser.
About the expansion
As Luis Lopez, part-time hoodlum and full-time assistant to legendary nightclub impresario Tony Prince (aka “Gay Tony”), players will struggle with the competing loyalties of family and friends, and with the uncertainty about who is real and who is fake in a world in which everyone has a price.
Controversy?
Rockstar has been known for inciting controversy over its games, either with overly violent content such as the Manhunter games, such things as the Hot Coffee hack for PC versions of the games that allowed raunchy imagery, or smaller things such as the name of a game, where their Bully game has to be renamed to Canis Canem Edit in PAL territories. This new expansion seems to be another one that could lead to some controversy over the name. Sometimes I wonder if they don’t do this specifically to get press. No such thing as bad press, and all?
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