Gamertag Radio writes: "Just got the news from Miss Info. Hip Hop legendary DJ Mr Magic passed away this morning. Gamers that don't know about DJ Mr Magic, he is a Hip Hop radio pioneer since the late 70's. Also if you played GTA Vice City he also had his own old school Hip Hop station. I still have old tapes of his shows. RIP to DJ Mr Magic."
» Read More 

Grand Theft Auto dominates the list, but some suprise entries from Need for Speed and Medal of Honor lower down the list...
» Read More 

Lost among the piles and piles of Playstation 3 and PSP announcements, we were totally unaware Rockstar were releasing a fabulous new package for the Playstation 2 which consists of Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto Vice City and Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. If you've never touched said games then the Grand Theft Auto Triple Pack launches on July 31st for £17.99.

Yes, £17.99.

That's about 100 hours worth of game for under £20. Bar-gain.
» Read More 

Speaking in an earnings call following the release of Q3 financials last night, Take-Two CEO Ben Feder said that old GTA titles have sold in seven figure units for the quarter.
» Read More 

Kotaku writes: "While we've seen countless story regarding children using Grand Theft Auto as their inspiration to do wrong, it's extremely rare that we see news about GTA being cited as a cause for good. It happened on August 27th around 9pm, as the Norris family of five was heading to Diamond, Illinois to visit relatives. Their 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee swerved off the road, hitting a guardrail and flipping four times before coming to a stop, caving in the roof and smashing out the back window. With her mother hanging upside down and her father pinned against the steering wheel, 11-year-old Audrey Plique climbed out of the back window and helped her parents and two younger siblings escape the car. The motivation for her heroic act, according to her mother Karen Norris?

'She just knew, from playing 'Grand Theft Auto.' She saw on there that when a car rolls over, it can blow up. She knew that could happen to us'"
» Read More 

WSBTV writes: "Fulton County officials said they have arrested three teens and charged them with 57 felony counts in connection with a recent series of car bombings with Molotov cocktails in the city of Milton, north of Atlanta.

The felony charges include arson, criminal damage to property and possession of explosive devices in six vehicle fires between 11 p.m. July 24 and 3 a.m. July 25. Each teen is charged with 19 counts.

Officials said the teens -- ages 15 and 16 -- told authorities they learned "how to do it" from playing the video game 'Grand Theft Auto.'"
» Read More 

MCV: The Rockstar co-founder looks back over his amazingly successful career, discussing his biggest challenges, successes - and what's he's still to achieve.
» Read More 

MCV: Rockstar boss reveals his motivations and his vision of the future in an exclusive MCV profile
» Read More 

A marketing and design firm reports that a German ad campaign is using Grand Theft Auto themes to promote Burger King. The campaign's "Veg City" theme is centered around the idea of fresh ingredients and giving customers choices in ordering from Burger King's menu:

"The first thing to remember is this would never work in America. While GTA: Vice City is still the best selling PS2 game of all time, it came with its share of backlash... However, the German culture is quite different than ours and one has to keep in mind the intended audience when evaluating a campaign..."
» Read More 

Next-Gen.Biz writes: "The NPD Group has revealed the top 10 selling games of all time in the U.S. market.

Forbes reported earlier this week NPD Group's up-to-date top ten U.S. videogame sales figures by units, revealing a list dominated by the Grand Theft Auto and Madden NFL franchises.

As seen below, GTA: San Andreas from 2004 is the top-selling game in the U.S. with 9.43 million units sold. The franchise shows up on the top 10 three times, while Madden appears four times.

Activision had two 2007 titles already break the top 10 (Guitar Hero III and Call of Duty 4), while EA had one 2007 title on the list in the form of Madden NFL 08."
» Read More 

VGB writes: Here's the Top 10 10 million selling games. Since the year 2000, there have been few games that sold over 10 million.
» Read More 

Kotaku reports:

In the June issue of Playboy, Rockstar's Dan Houser gave a somewhat rare full-page interview on Grand Theft Auto 4 and violent video games. Why, Houser was asked, don't other entertainment industries offer more support for video games, since their controversial content is often targeted for criticism in the same fashion?

"It's about economics. We take market share and audience from other media - video game makers are challenging the Hollywood hegemony - so they're going to fight us. But I'm not going to fight them. I believe your Constitution protects us."

When interviewer Scott Alexander asked Houser about inequity in the way adult games are treated as compared with film and other media, Houser said:

"These are works of fiction. Playing a game that features violence is no different from choosing to see a violent movie. We're not trying to create a 'here's real life' sensation in a video game; it's "you're the star of a movie. We want to re-create the sensations you have watching movies. We're putting those in a video game."

When asked to isolate why Rockstar's games seem to provoke a swath of mainstream anger from certain circles, Houser said:

"We're trying to give gamers freedom. It boils down to critics not liking the fact that people can choose to do 'bad' things in a fantasy world - which to me is silly."

The full interview is print only, so to read the whole thing you'd have to look at a copy of June's Playboy. You know, for the article, of course.
» Read More 

EDGE writes:

"Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter believes that the PS3 outsold the Xbox 360 in the US during April, while monthly software sales hit $830 million, up 113 percent on last April's total.

Ahead of the NPD Group's April videogame sales data release, expected this Thursday after market close, Pachter forecast that Nintendo once again came out on top in terms of hardware sales, shifting 600,000 Wii consoles and 550,000 DS systems. He cited greater Wii and DS availability in his investor note as contributing factors to the systems' sales success. He also said he expects the PS3 to have outsold the Xbox 360 by 290,000 units to 275,000..."
» Read More 

MCV reveals that title sells almost a million units in five days; takes over £39 million at retail.
» Read More 

An exhibition entitled "Love & Money: The Best Of British Design Now" is touring Asian countries currently. The synopsis is below:

"...Love & Money, organised jointly by the British Council and UK Trade & Investment, features twenty projects and designers that balance business ambition and commercial success with the invention and experimentation for which Britain's creative industries are internationally renowned."

Within the exhibition is a space dedicated to Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto Series.

GTA is considered to be a benchmark for modern design values. This is a very positive nod towards gaming and in particular one with such a criticized content.

Had this N4G member not have stumbled upon this showcase, it may well have slipped silently into the night. Here is a link to the offical exhibition page

http://www.britishcouncil.org/arts-design-love-and-money.htm

Enjoy
» Read More 

Ever since the release of 2001's groundbreaking Grand Theft Auto III, there've been seemingly hundreds of games that shamelessly rip off its free-roaming, carjacking open-world formula. But as hard as the pretenders try, there's still only one ... » Read More

The funny thing about inventing a genre of videogames is that, until it becomes completely played out, every game that emulates your formula is going to be attached to your name. Games that feature a wide-open, freely explorable world, for example, will have a hard time avoiding the label of "Grand Theft Auto clone," especially if their worlds are littered with vehicles to steal and drive. In the six years since Grand Theft Auto III, a slew of games have tried to become "the next GTA," but so ... » Read More

Rockstar's future Grand Theft Auto games are still shrouded in rumor, but a hint at their upcoming plans cropped up on March 21. According to the US Patent and Trademark Office, Take-Two Interactive has filed to trademark the name "Vice City Stories" for use in television and movies, clothing and, yes, video ... » Read More

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was the clear star of last night's BAFTA game awards, bagging a total of five gongs in the PS2, Design, Action, Sound and PC categories, as well as winning the Sunday Times Readers Award, the only BAFTA to be voted for by members of the public.Two other titles also won accolades in more than one category at the ceremony, which took place last night at London's Radisson Portman Hotel and was presented by Bill Bailey. Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising won the GBA and ... » Read More