Grand Theft Auto hits stores

THE GRAND GAME? Grand Theft Auto IV has a ‘Mature’ rating in the US from an industry council.

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Keywords: Grand Theft Auto, video game

New Delhi: The latest entry in the video game industry might just be the biggest money spinner in entertainment history. Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.’s Grand Theft Auto hit stores on Tuesday, and ardent gamers queued up outside stores to catch a glimpse of it.

Experts predict the action-packed game will easily top last year's record-breaking first week sales of $300 million of the Halo 3.

In the new game players can hijack cars, earn cash for criminal activities, flee from police, drive drunk, kill innocent bystanders and patronise strip clubs.

Take-Two is depending on Grand Theft Auto sales to stiffen shareholder resistance to a $2 billion hostile takeover bid from Electronic Arts Inc., the largest game publisher.

New York-based Take-Two predicts revenue may more than double to as much as $500 million this quarter on demand for the new title and end more than two years of losses.

New features include additional episodes for sale on Microsoft's Xbox Live service, and options that let gamers depart from the story line. Players can also go on a date, visit a bar and pretend to surf the Internet within the game.

The game is set in a fictional metropolis, Liberty City, that resembles New York. Mobs battle for control of the drug trade in a game that combines two popular genres, driving and shooting.

Grand Theft Auto IV has a ‘Mature’ rating in the US from an industry council, which says it's appropriate only for players ages 17 and older because of graphic violence and partial nudity. In previous versions, characters cavort with prostitutes and shoot passersby during chases.

The Parents Television Council, an organisation devoted to limiting sex, violence and profanity in media, called the game “brutally violent” in a statement last week, and warned retailers to keep the product away from children.