GTA 5 Release Date Sept. 17; Rockstar Denies Delay Conspiracy Theories
Rockstar Games announced Grand Theft Auto 5 (GTA 5) had a production delay and will be available on Sept. 17 which sparked conspiracy theories as to the exact reason for the late release.
The September release date was announced by the gaming company on its website on Jan. 31 with an open letter to GTA 5 fans that apologized for the pushed back date.
"We know this is about four months later than originally planned and we know that this short delay will come as a disappointment to many of you, but, trust us, it will be worth the extra time," the company's letter stated. "GTA 5 is a massively ambitious and complex game and it simply needs a little more polish to be of the standard we and, more importantly, you require."
GTA 5 has been confirmed for Xbox 360 and PS3, but other versions that are possibly in the works are the base of one of the conspiracy theories.
The game delay was allegedly caused by Rockstar in order for the company to work on versions to be released for next-generation consoles such as the PS4 and Xbox 720.
Doug Creutz, an analyst from Cowen & Company, talked to Trusted Reviews about the latest release date which might be related to the new gaming consoles which will likely have an impact on the sales of GTA 5.
Another theory suggested that the game producers wanted to delay the release till later in the year as to not be drawn into the recent controversy surrounding the high profile shootings in the U.S. that lead to a review of current gun policy, according to Gamasutra.
The conspiracy theories were denied by Rockstar, which publicly responded to the theories with an official statement: "To those of you saying or seeing various conspiracy theories about there being some other ulterior motive for this delay, rest assured that they're all nonsense - literally the only reason we've delayed the release is because we want the game to be as good as it needs to be."
