October 16th, 2007. That was the original launch date for GTA IV. Then the bad news came that the next installment in the world’s most popular violent video game series would be delayed 6 months. Not only was this in itself huge news, but it started a huge flame war on the internet between fanboys, because there was a rumor flying around that the reason for the delay was due to Rockstar having problems developing it on the PS3.

Find out why I think the delay of GTA IV has absolutely nothing to do with the PS3 and was actually a good thing after the jump.

Raise your hand if you think there were way too many great games released in the past 3 months. If you don’t have your hand raised then you are obviously not a gamer, because these past three months have arguably been the best three months in the history of video games. Almost every single week brought us an amazing new must-play title and left us all having to choose which game not to buy because our wallets couldn’t handle buying all the games we really wanted.

This is the main reason I think that Rockstar pushed back their launch date. They took a look at the ridiculously crowded fall lineup and knew that people were going to have to make tough decisions on which games to purchase. Not only that, but their original launch date was only a few weeks after the biggest game launch in history (a little title by the name of Halo 3). It would have been stupid to launch so near that industry dominator.

In my opinion, Rockstar made one of the smartest business decisions possible when they decided to delay GTA IV. This gives them the opportunity to:

1. Launch during a slow period in game releases.
2. Take advantage of the larger console install base.
3. Build more hype.
4. Perfect the game.

What it really all comes down to is #4. I would much rather they delay the game a year if they have to if it means we get the best possible product they can deliver, rather than rushing it out the door and trying to fix all the bugs later. So let me be the first to thank Rockstar for delaying their most highly anticipated game ever in order to make it the best possible game they can.

Thank you, Rockstar.

Click here for the rest of Sarcastic Gamer’s Top 100 Gaming Moments from 2007 all in one place!

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