The video game industry took a big hit yesterday when publisher Take Two Interactive announced it was delaying the release of the wildly anticipated “Grand Theft Auto IV” from October into the second quarter. The reason, according to the company, is that the game isn’t yet finished. It had been hoped that the game would boost the sagging sales of the both Sony’s PS3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 consoles, for which it’s designed, and well as offer a fillip to the troubled world of Take Two. The company has experienced a difficult couple of years, having had poor results, along with accounting problems, and controversy in one of its GTA games, which was withdrawn from sale by some stores because of sexual content. Things came to a head earlier this year when shareholders voted to replace the firm’s chief executive and many of its directors. In June Take Two announced job cuts in an attempt to cut costs for $25 million in the next year. The delay is especially likely to hit PS3 sales, as Microsoft has the ace of “Halo 3,” due for release next month, up its sleeve. Sony doesn’t have anything similar in the wings. Take Two chairman Strauss Zelnick told investors that there was no choice but to delay the game, as it still needed work, and faced challenges from the technical demands of the new consoles. “Delivering a product that did not meet our standards was not an acceptable path,” he said. There have been no previous delays in GTA games, which have sold a total of 65 million copies. The news caused shares in the company to drop 19%.
