Spotlight
Key events
25th August 2011
5th March 2010
22nd January 2010
21st October 2009
19th October 2009
20th April 2009
16th March 2009
19th September 2008
Bill Paxton to play Jack Thompson in BBC GTA drama
UPDATE: BBC confirms plot, Daniel Radcliffe to star.
UPDATE 22/4/15 10.55am: BBC Two has now officially announced Game Changer, the newly-titled drama that will detail development of Grand Theft Auto.
Daniel Radcliffe in talks to play GTA producer Sam Houser
In BBC drama helmed by Black Mirror and Misfits director.
Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe is in negotiations to star in the BBC's upcoming drama Grand Theft Auto, a feature-length programme about the popular game series' creation.
Sony launches huge PSP software sale
"To show you that PSP is still alive."
Sony will discount more than 100 PSP games over the next month on the PSN Store.
While there's no new content to be had, the EU PlayStation blog lists over 50 PSP games and minis discounted "to show you that PSP is still alive".
The current deals last until 7th September, when another list of PSP classics get a price drop.
Take-Two: $40 iPad games possible
"Robust" titles would sell at higher price.
Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two can see a future where it could viably sell full $40 games on tablets.
What Team17 founder Brown did next
Worms his way into another job.
In early February, Martyn Brown made the shock announcement that he was leaving the studio he founded and ran for 20 years, Team17.
iPad launch screens.
iPad launch screens.
GTA on iPad next week for six quid
Takes you down to Chinatown.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars HD will be released for iPad next Thursday, 9th September.
GTA iPhone now available in 'Lite'
A free demo, in other words.
Rockstar has released a 'Lite' version of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars on the App Store.
GTA V to be announced before E3?
Analyst reckons suspension is building.
Games industry analyst Mike Hickey has said a Grand Theft Auto V announcement may be on the way - and that it could be made before E3 kicks off in June.
"There is building suspension for a pre-E3 GTA V announcement," he said, as reported by Industrygamers. "Although we expect nothing from Rockstar at this year’s official E3 event."
Rockstar is more likely to hold a separate press event and make the announcement independent of any publisher conferences, apparently. That's because GTA V really is kind of a big deal.
Iain Duncan Smith has a go at games
Singles out that pesky Grand Theft Auto.
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith has claimed videogames are messing up the kids with their crazy violent ways.
Chinatown Wars now on sale in App Store
Pick up the iPhone version for six quid.
A new version of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is now on sale in the App Store.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
Scores on the wars.
If you thought Grand Theft Auto on the DS was unlikely, how about GTA on the DS ported to PSP? Already home to two of its own GTA games, which are also the two most popular games on the system, Sony's handheld could be forgiven for thinking it was above these top-down action-adventures, especially imports from the land of Nintendogs. Where are the fancy 3D graphics? Surely the PSP deserves better?
Well, first thing - no, judging by Sony's current hardware strategy, the PSP does not deserve better. But look on the bright side - the original Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars was much better than anyone expected. "GTA as it first was, with the inherited wisdom of GTA as it's been since, finished off with all sorts of things that would happily belong in a GTA of the future," according to whichever idiot reviewed the DS version.
Chinatown Wars was - and remains for PSP - a more frivolous take on the Liberty City laid out in Grand Theft Auto IV. Protagonist Huang Lee, son of a murdered playboy, returns to the States to deliver an ancient sword to his uncle, but the sword is stolen, so Lee ends up doing missions for various wannabe Triad bosses. Forget the grim and grimy soliloquising of Niko Bellic, everyone here needs their heads examined, from the psychopathic Zhou Ming, who cuts out hearts and then boasts about the size of his manhood, to transsexual prostitute-loving Chan Jaoming, son of the current boss. It's very crass but keeps you smirking.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
New turf.
Remember Nintendo's E3 2008 press conference? No, not the one with the Vitality Sensor and Women's Murder Club, that was this year. And best forgotten. 2008 was when Nintendo showed off MotionPlus for the first time, along with Animal Crossing: City Folk and Wii Music. But the biggest surprise was the announcement the Grand Theft Auto series would be making its debut on the DS.
GTA: Chinatown Wars coming to iPhone
Along with new music-maker Beaterator.
Rockstar Games has announced two of its titles are in development for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
First shots of the game. Due out 23rd Oct.
First shots of the game. Due out 23rd Oct.
Late October for DS conversion.
Rockstar has announced that Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars will be released for PSP in the US on 20th October.
The bossman on GTA, Agent, violence and art.
You won't find too many exec interviews on Eurogamer - we usually leave that sort of thing to our friends over at GamesIndustry.biz. But we got the opportunity to speak to Ben Feder, CEO of Take-Two, at E3 this year. Seeing as he's a big deal, and his company publishes one of the most successful videogame franchises ever, we thought we'd give it a go. Read on to find out Feder's opinion of Jack Thompson, whether he thinks there's a line to be drawn with violence in games and what day GTA V is out. Maybe not the last one.
In Europe and US this autumn.
Rockstar Games has announced a PSP version of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. The game will be released in Europe and the US this autumn.
Expects them to pick up in future.
Nintendo of America expects Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars sales to pick up over its lifespan, despite relatively low first-month US sales.
"Chinatown Wars is performing in line with AAA titles that have come to our platform like Spore or LEGO Star Wars," Nintendo's third-party relations man Steve Singer told MTV. "Those games went on to have very different life-to-date sales numbers."
The DS-exclusive action game reviewed extremely well but only notched up around 89,000 US sales in the second half of March following launch, according to NPD figures.
GTA DS meetings held in pub - Hall
Rockstar Leeds explains dev process.
Rockstar Leeds man Gordon Hall has revealed the secrets behind the success of the portable versions of Grand Theft Auto: meetings at the pub, and everyone in the office plays the game once a week.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
Out this Friday.
Out this Friday.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
The King stay the King.
Coming so soon after Grand Theft Auto IV took an imperious bow in the middle of last year, Rockstar's announcement that GTA would be heading to DS, and within a matter of months, was met with justified excitement but also surprise and scepticism. The PSP had done a fine job with Liberty City Stories - still the best-selling game on Sony's handheld - but Nintendo's innovative hardware would surely be hard-pressed to bring Grand Theft Auto to life in the way its fans have come to expect.
Well, if Chinatown Wars does nothing else, it presses the DS harder than virtually anything else you can buy for it. This is GTA on a smaller screen, but by no means a smaller scale. GTAIV's Liberty City may have been cut back to two islands (the best ones), but they're massive, diverse playgrounds, teeming with cars, pedestrians, the series' trademark missions and side-games, wonderfully rendered in surprising detail by an engine that ranks among the best on the platform. And with the addition of touch-screen gimmicks and a significant new drug-dealing component, the loss of things like the comedy voiceovers and talkshows are hardly felt.
Although this is the same Liberty City we all ripped apart last year, Rockstar has thrown out the cast in order to tell a new story. You play as Huang Lee, the spoiled son of a murdered gangster arriving back in town to pick up the pieces, quickly and conveniently thrown in at the deep end of a typical tale of turf wars, bent cops and the dark comedy of Rockstar's cock-eyed criminal underworld.
Sony in talks to bring more GTA to PSP
Reckons DS sales will be "interesting".
Sony has confirmed there are plans to bring more Grand Theft Auto games to the PSP.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
Rumble in the Bronx.
Rumble in the Bronx.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
Top-screen action from numerous tasks.
Top-screen action from numerous tasks.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
Apocalypse Mao.
In the ten years since GTA II's Anywhere City, we've gone from looking down on Grand Theft Auto games to staring up at them, so Chinatown Wars should be jarring. Early screenshots of the game have had that effect: squidgy, ruffled characters, crayon-muzzled gunfights; black-edged opacity after a decade straining for transparence.
FeatureComing Attractions: Action & Adventure
Get juiced and get thinking.
We've had indie and esoterica, sports and music, MMOs and RPGs, and fighting and strategy, which just leaves the glamour girls of action, adventure, shooters and racing to strut their stuff.
GTA: Chinatown Wars gets 18 rating
It'll feature nearly three hours of video.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, the first DS instalment in the series, has been given an 18 rating by the British Board of Film Classification.
Take-Two retains Housers, coy on GTA V
Also thinking about M-rated Wii content.
Take-Two has announced "a new incentive compensation programme" based on profit sharing for the Rockstar Games label, and "long-term employment agreements" for key team-members including Sam and Dan Houser and GTA producer Leslie Benzies.
DS game coming in March.
Rockstar has announced a release date for Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, the first DS entry in the smash hit series.
GTA DS to feature most of IV's map
More gameplay details trickle out.
A preview of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars in Spanish magazine MarcaPlayer has revealed a few more details on the DS entry in the series.
Rockstar delays GTA: Chinatown Wars
GTA IV DLC may slip to 2009, too.
Rockstar has pushed the release of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars back to some time between February and April 2009. We had expected the DS instalment before the end of January.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
Chinatown Wars in my pocket.
Chinatown Wars in my pocket.
Drug-dealing mini-game for GTA DS
Houser confident it'll fit in nicely.
Rockstar will be including a drug-dealing mini-game in Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars on DS.
GTA on Wii "didn't really feel natural"
Says Rockstar's Dan Houser.
Rockstar Games' co-founder Dan Houser has revealed why the company has so far shied away from releasing a Grand Theft Auto title on the Wii.
New details for GTA: Chinatown Wars
DS game will feature cel-shaded graphics.
Rockstar will be pulling no punches with DS game Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, which is set to be rated "Mature".
That's according to Nintendo Power magazine (as reported on NeoGAF).
We're told Chinatown Wars will be cel-shaded, be presented from an isometric viewpoint and include a day-night cycle and weather effects.
GTA IV ships over 10 million copies
Chinatown Wars out before Feb 09.
Take-Two has sold over 10 million copies of Grand Theft Auto IV to shops around the world.
GTA Chinatown Wars site appears
DS exclusive to have Wi-Fi action?
Rockstar has cobbled together a placeholder website for DS exclusive Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars.
Grand Theft Auto heading to DS
This winter, says Nintendo.
Nintendo and Rockstar have whipped the wrappers of an exclusive Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars game for DS.
