360 hardware holding GTA IV back?

Xbox 360's lack of a guaranteed hard-drive, with some gamers having opted for the stripped-down Core version, and its use of DVD discs, will create limitations in Grand Theft Auto IV's development, Rockstar has acknowledged.

During an interview with the UK's Official PlayStation Magazine, Rockstar's creative vice president Dan Houser was posed this question: "On PS3 you've got a guarantee that every machine is going to have a hard-drive and, with Blu-ray, you've got plenty of storage, whereas on Xbox 360 there's no guarantee of a hard-drive and you're working with the DVD format. Does that create limitations?" To which he simply answered, "Yep."

"To be honest with you," Houser continued, "we haven't solved all those riddles yet." Although the difficulties aren't limited to working with Microsoft's console, as he explains that "both [platforms] have enormous challenges" and that "there are problems on both ... both have their own particular pleasures and pains." If anyone can make the most of what's available, though, it has to be Rockstar.

May 2, 2007

Ben Richardson is a former Staff Writer for Official PlayStation 2 magazine and a former Content Editor of GamesRadar+. In the years since Ben left GR, he has worked as a columnist, communications officer, charity coach, and podcast host – but we still look back to his news stories from time to time, they are a window into a different era of video games.