(Below is the beginning of a report filed at MTVNews.com. UPDATE: Rockstar just announced this morning that the game will ship on April 29)
NEW YORK — "Grand Theft Auto IV" will be the biggest entertainment experience of the year and make its players feel like immigrants newly arrived in America, according to a developer working on the game.
After showcasing a nearly complete version of "Grand Theft Auto IV" on the Xbox 360 to MTV News for an hour and a half earlier this week, Rockstar Games Vice President of Product Development Jeronimo Barrera talked about how delays have shaped "GTA IV," how the game handles sex and violence this time around, and more.
"I don't see anything being bigger in 2008 in any entertainment," Barrera said as he sat on a black couch in Rockstar's demo room, proudly sporting a white T-shirt with a large "IV" printed on the front. "We think it's that big, and we just have to get the word out."
What Barrera and the development team that handles the game in New York and in Scotland-based Rockstar North are promising is the king of open-world games. Rockstar Games popularized the go-anywhere, do-anything open-world genre with "Grand Theft Auto III" in 2001. This new game is intended to be the next leap. "We don't want anybody else to raise the bar for a genre that we created and that everybody else ripped off," Barrera said. "So we definitely want to shock not just the players, but the industry. I'm not talking about shock value. I'm talking about just how big it is and just how many crazy, bananas things you can do in the game."