UK industry confident GTA IV wont be sold early

Concerns that some retailers may sell copies of Grand Theft Auto IV early so far appear ill-founded as the industry gears up for its April 29th launch.

Rockstar’s much-hyped car-jacking sequel has already shipped to retailers worldwide, but there’s currently no sign that copies have been sold ahead of time.

We’ve not seen any indication of the street date breaking at our end,” said ChartTrack’s Chris Poole. Things are looking good for April 29th.”

Take Two has done everything they physically can to stop the street date breaking,” added CHIPS boss Don McCabe. We’ve all had to sign an agreement, we’ve all received constant reminders about that agreement, we’ve even had to sign an agreement on the guide book release for the first time.”

Of course if anyone does break the date I hope the full weight of Take Two comes down upon them, and I wouldn’t be surprised if their re-stock delivery gets lost somewhere.”

Last year both Argos and Tesco sold several copies of Halo 3 before release. Yet HMV’s Tim Ellis feels that’s unlikely to occur this time, with there being no advantage in selling early.

The whole industry needs to work together, and if anyone undermines the release date then we could see games getting shipped later, giving us all less planning time,” he told MCV.

However, with regards to GTA IV I don’t see any advantage of selling the game early. If retailers release it today or next week it’ll still sell through, and upsetting Rockstar will only go against them in the long term.”