Dan Houser, the co-founder of Rockstar Games, sat down with Variety to talk about all things Grand Theft Auto IV. In the interview, Houser discusses the studio's reason behind releasing the game in Japan six months after it was released elsewhere.
He was also a little hesitant on detailing the specifics on the downloadable content still planned to be released on the consoles.
He was also a little hesitant on detailing the specifics on the downloadable content still planned to be released on the consoles.
Me: On another topic, I have to ask you about the "GTA IV" downloadable content you're doing. Do you still expect that to come out this year?The_professional
DH: I'm not sure. It's going well. But we don’t know a date. We hope to be announcing that in the next few weeks. We're still figuring out a few things. We're more focused on quality than dates, always have been. But the development is going really good. It's shaping up to be something we're very proud of. That was our goal
Me: Do you think you'll talk at all about what the DLC will be and how it will fit into "GTA IV's" story?
DH: We want to give people a rough idea so their expectations are roughly in line. We don't want them to imagine it's this enormous thing that it can never be...
Doing a big digital launch is something we've never done before. It's virgin territory, but at the same time, we feel very exposed because there's no case history. No one ever came out with major DLC for a major game like this before.
It's new territory for everybody. We're making it up a little bit as we go along. That's always fun, but it makes you nervous.
Me: Like how do you price something like this?
DH: How to price it. Whether to release it day-and-date everywhere... Europe and the U.S. I'm sure will be day-and-date or within a few days, but I'm not sure about Japan. It's a small Xbox market...
You even have to ask what time to release it at. We have some experience of doing through releasing our trailers. It can slow down sections of the 'Net. What works as a great time on the east coast may be late for
Europe and too early for the west coast. Those are all things we wouldn’t normally think about.
Read more about how the Rockstar team approaches a game release in Japan and other interesting details.
DH: I'm not sure. It's going well. But we don’t know a date. We hope to be announcing that in the next few weeks. We're still figuring out a few things. We're more focused on quality than dates, always have been. But the development is going really good. It's shaping up to be something we're very proud of. That was our goal
Me: Do you think you'll talk at all about what the DLC will be and how it will fit into "GTA IV's" story?
DH: We want to give people a rough idea so their expectations are roughly in line. We don't want them to imagine it's this enormous thing that it can never be...
Doing a big digital launch is something we've never done before. It's virgin territory, but at the same time, we feel very exposed because there's no case history. No one ever came out with major DLC for a major game like this before.
It's new territory for everybody. We're making it up a little bit as we go along. That's always fun, but it makes you nervous.
Me: Like how do you price something like this?
DH: How to price it. Whether to release it day-and-date everywhere... Europe and the U.S. I'm sure will be day-and-date or within a few days, but I'm not sure about Japan. It's a small Xbox market...
You even have to ask what time to release it at. We have some experience of doing through releasing our trailers. It can slow down sections of the 'Net. What works as a great time on the east coast may be late for
Europe and too early for the west coast. Those are all things we wouldn’t normally think about.