GTA: San Andreas Xbox and PC release dates

By Tom Bramwell Published 17 December, 2004

PS2 hating gamers will have to wait until June.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is due out on PC and Xbox in June 2005, Rockstar Games revealed this week as part of mother-publisher Take-Two's latest financial statement. Both versions will ship on June 10th in Europe, having appeared in the US three days earlier on the 7th.

This marks the first time that Take-Two/Rockstar has discussed the Xbox version in public, although having released an Xbox "Double Pack" of GTA III and Vice City as soon as their PS2 exclusivity arrangement on those titles expired at the beginning of 2004, San Andreas had been widely tipped to make the leap to Microsoft's format.

Whether Rockstar chooses to make any improvements to either version remains to be seen, but typically the PC and Xbox versions have benefited from superior visuals and, in the case of the PC versions, a radio station set aside for playback of your own MP3 music whilst driving.

Hardly surprisingly, Take-Two chairman and CEO Richard Roedel was able to confirm San Andreas "was the largest videogame launch in Take-Two's history", although there's no specific info on how many units it's sold so far. The game sits at number two in the UK Charts this week having launched and gone straight to number one at the end of October.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (45) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Blerk #1 7 years ago

    Is anyone really surprised at this news?

  • sir_tripod #2 7 years ago

    That's ages away, but having recently completed Vice City on the PC, I just can't wait. Nothing like 1280x1024 resolution and no fogging (unless it's foggy.)

    YES YES YES YES!!!

  • kincaide #3 7 years ago

    The Sony big exclusives are getting shorter - me thinks it will take a bit longer before Halo 2 appears on the PS2/3

  • Blerk #4 7 years ago

    I'm certainly not surprised that you were the first to comment about it, without actually managing to make anything which resembles a coherent point.

    Ooo-oooh! Get her!

  • sir_tripod #5 7 years ago

    Quote: " The Sony big exclusives are getting shorter - me thinks it will take a bit longer before Halo 2 appears on the PS2/3"


    ... Halo 2 is a Microsoft game. I don't think it will appear on the PS2/3.

  • kincaide #6 7 years ago

    That was my point

  • pjmaybe #7 7 years ago

    Too much, too little, too late!

    Ahh well maybe by the time these are released I might've finished the PS2 version!

    Peej

  • Blerk #8 7 years ago

    This isn't really a 'Sony big exclusive' though, is it? It's a Rockstar game, not a Sony one. Comparing it with Halo isn't really a fair comparison - Killzone's not likely to appear on Xbox any time soon either. And a bloody good thing for Xbox owners too! ;-)

  • Whizzo #9 7 years ago

    I agree on the mission difficulties, make them more difficult, things are getting a tad too easy in the GTAs.

    "Supply Lines" is the only really hard mission in the game and unfortunately it's a bit crap.

  • Blerk #10 7 years ago

    More difficult?

    /slaps Whizzo
    /feels inadequate

  • ralphwolfenstein #11 7 years ago

    As GTA: VC was significantly better on Xbox, I think that spells the end of my brief dabble with San Andreas until the summer...

  • space_ace #12 7 years ago

    i only recently played a bit of gtasa and it was slow? on ps2. how come this fact wasn't publicized?

    pc version would be great.

  • Mr Richard #13 7 years ago

    The flying was, and is, easy. All the schools are easy, the flying school being the easiest of them all. Most of the missions are easy, if not slightly hair-raising, loading it up is easy, pressing the buttons and yelling at the TV is easy. Easy easy easy. Only the Zero missions defy it all, bar the last one. And, admittedly, the flying controls could be better but at least they're easy.

  • Whizzo #14 7 years ago

    The flight school is piss easy! For those yet to experience the game when you're doing it switch to first person and you'll do it with no problems at all.

    The first Zero mission is quite tricky but as long as you don't do it when the light is wrong and you switch vibration off to help with aiming it's not that hard. The third Zero mission is so easy you should be able to do it first time.

    So many of the missions you think are going to be tough, like the final casino one, just aren't.
    Edited by 1 at 17/12/04 @ 09:54

  • Lothar Hex #15 7 years ago

    Well this saves on me buying a PS2 for the game then. Woo.

  • markypants #16 7 years ago

    I completed GTA:SA a few days ago, feckin' brilliant. The thought of doing it all again on the X-Box will make my summer. It is by far the best game I have had the chance to play in a long time, and is making finding a game to play next a real difficulty!!

    My only point/comment/critisism would be that I too think it was a tad too easy. There were only a few missions that I had to re-do and that was just down to stupidity.

    But... The fact that when you finish the story mode you are only 50-60% complete is brilliant as there is still so much to do in the game.

    I think having better frame rate (Stadium racing slow-down) and cleaner visuals is reason enough to play through again, although I don't really like the XBox controller set up.

    Please Rockstar can we have Jet-ski's in the next one? And Scuba gear/Submarines?

    I think you really have to play this game to appreciate its size and quality. Its huge value for money, and considering Rockstar could have made a game 1/3 the size and it still would have sold like Kylie Minogues used knickers, they should be used as an example by companies like EA who churn out half finished/thought through rubbish.

    That is all.

  • Universal_Hamster #17 7 years ago

    Mmmmmm, Danny Bakers smalls...

  • StixxUK #18 7 years ago

    Yay!

    Absolutely no reason to buy a PS2 \m/

  • Corben_Dallas #19 7 years ago

    I need to know why Kylie Minogues used Knickers ]:) should be used as an example by companies like EA who churn out half finished/thought through rubbish. :D
    LOL
    ]:) :D :p

  • markypants #20 7 years ago

    ^^^ There is always one isn't there...

  • Mr Richard #21 7 years ago

    Well if GTA:SA XBox is a better looking game then I'll buy it and play it all over again. It's very easy, but it's a lot of fun.

    Also, Kylie's pants would outsell Dannii's pants by about 126-0. What I mean by that is Dannii is a moose in comparison to her sister, a swamp donkey, a yeti, a man in a wig etc. The correct phrase is 'Would sell better than Katie Hill's used pants'.

  • The-Bodybuilder #22 7 years ago

    The nect GTA will be GTA: Japan.

    You shall play a young japanese man, who goes in search of the person who killed his father and stole an ancient 'mirror' relic from his dojo.

    You shall spend your time looking for sailors in nightclubs.

  • Blerk #23 7 years ago

    You know, making fun of people with Downs Syndrome is actually really fucking offensive.

  • Universal_Hamster #24 7 years ago

    Yeah, but so is fucking swearing

  • Blerk #25 7 years ago

    This has nothing to do with people with downs syndrome.

    Just think about that for a minute and you'll realise how utterly and completely wrong you are.

  • spindizzy #26 7 years ago

    Just ignore them Blerk.

    (I've just been reading the comments to the latest post by ea_spouse and all I can say is that there are horribly unpleasant people out there.)

    http://www.livejournal.com/users/ea_spouse/1479.html

    (fixed typo)
    Edited by 1 at 17/12/04 @ 13:48

  • kincaide #27 7 years ago

    Blerk quote: "This isn't really a 'Sony big exclusive' though, is it? It's a Rockstar game, not a Sony one. Comparing it with Halo isn't really a fair comparison - Killzone's not likely to appear on Xbox any time soon either. And a bloody good thing for Xbox owners too! ;-)"

    I would disagree - I know a few people who have bought a PS2, just so they can play GTA:SA. I would argue it is a big exclusive for Sony, as people buy a console just to play it - it is that important. Just look at the sales figures to see how big this game is.

    I also know people who have bought an xbox for Halo2 for the same reason. GTA:SA is coming to xbox, Halo2 isn't going the other way - that's the point I am making

  • Blerk #28 7 years ago

    Well yeah - I understand the point.

    But Halo is a Microsoft game and GTA:SA isn't. Halo was never going to make the change. A better comparison would've been something like 'Fable' or 'KOTOR' - big name Xbox titles which won't make the jump because they're not technically feasible on PS2. Then again, you could opt for something like 'Splinter Cell' which was also a huge exclusive for Microsoft which rapidly ended up on every machine under the sun.

  • mcmonkeyplc #29 7 years ago

    Thats my summer gaming sorted out then....maybe some live play would be nice.

  • kincaide #30 7 years ago

    Blerk - I see where you are coming from - and I agree : Splinter Cell would be a better comparison.

    I know the general point has been made before, but it seems exclusives are getting less and less "exclusive" now-a-days. But Sony does not have a Halo2 selling exclusive. The nearest they have to that is GTA, and to a lesser degree PES (but that gap was bridged by Microsoft with the recent release of PES 4)

  • Blerk #31 7 years ago

    But Sony does not have a Halo2 selling exclusive.

    Now that is true. Sony first and second-party exclusives are occasionally very good indeed, but never huge sellers.

  • m2h #32 7 years ago

    w00t! == PC

  • Bill Gates is Evil #33 7 years ago

    what about gamecube? is gamecube getting GTA: SA?

  • tengu #34 7 years ago

    I would shag:

    Dannii Minogue
    Kylie Minogue
    GTA San Andreas

    In THAT order.

  • Johnson #35 7 years ago

    You'd screw a DVD? Well, it does have a very tight little hole but... er, what was my point?

  • tengu #36 7 years ago

    It IS possible though... believe me...

    Ow...

  • Homer Simpson #37 7 years ago

    So would you shag Halo 2 as well tengu? :o)

  • 3william56 #38 7 years ago

    8 month exclusivity periods (even if the new versions come out on time) is still pretty long in an audience of folks willing to import, mod, pirate, buy a new console or kill their grandma for the latest and greatest games. (sorry Nan).

    Agree though that exclusivity is dying a welcome death - about the only thing (apart from glitzy menus and spiffy soundtracks) that we can thank the monster independants (from the console manufacturers) like EA for.

    Whether it continues in the next gen of consoles will be interesting. I can't personally see there being an appreciable difference in performance/quality between the PS3 & XB2, so without exclusivity, where's the decision maker between consoles?

    It will always be there for Ninty, but Sony vs. MS with identical games? Hell, someone better make a slick looking box.

  • crofty13 #39 7 years ago

    I thought GTA SA was crap, the missions just sucked and the whole thing looked unfinished (probably down the the PS2 crying under all that data).

    I can't wait for this to be out on xbox! a decent controller, refine the levels abit and stick in my own soundtrack. Sweeet.....!

    exclusivity will remain but remeber Rockstart has alot more money and power this time around then with GTA 3. Its in their own interests to get the game out on as many consoles as possible.

  • Whizzo #40 7 years ago

    I thought GTA SA was crap, the missions just sucked and the whole thing looked unfinished (probably down the the PS2 crying under all that data).

    I can't wait for this to be out on xbox!

    Yay for idiot fanbois! "The missions are crap..... I can't wait for it to be out on xbox." Here's a clue THE MISSIONS WILL BE THE SAME and if they're crap why bother buying a game just because it maybe technically better?

  • skuzzbag #41 7 years ago

    ;alskjfsd - Boo hoo, waah waah! Big big baby.

  • Mr Richard #42 7 years ago

    "gamecube is the gayest system ever"

    No, U r

  • Whizzo #43 7 years ago

    And I thought panto season was over.

  • spillz #44 7 years ago

    "in the case of the PC versions, a radio station set aside for playback of your own MP3 music whilst driving."

    true for xbox too. (well WMAs at least)

  • mrpsb #45 7 years ago

    MOHH OMLOMOHLMOHLOMUHUHUHO