What do Bully's technical issues mean for GTA IV?

In response to reports from dissatisfied gamers claiming that the Xbox 360 version of Bully Scholarship Edition is riddled with technical problems, Rockstar boss Sam Houser released a statement to apologise and offer an explanation as to how the various issues went undetected.

Houser explains: "It appears that some older 360s are experiencing framerate issues, freezes and other problems. You have our word that we never experienced any of this in QA - in any of our offices or at Microsoft. I am horrified, and we are now working around the clock to rectify this situation."

We have no reason to question the honesty of Houser's statement - Rockstar is one of the most fastidious publishers/developers in the business and we simply can't imagine it would ever entertain the idea of intentionally releasing a broken game. After all, we know that its not scared of delaying something that it doesn't consider to be ready.

So while we don't doubt Rockstar's integrity, we have to wonder whether any similar technical issues are only now being identified in the 360 version of GTA IV. If so, could this have any impact on the game's release date? Further more, should owners of older Xbox 360s be concerned that their consoles are going to experience problems when running new games? Will this simply mean more patch fixes or will it require a more drastic solution? Are we getting our panties in a pickle over nothing?

Unfortunately, at the time of writing neither Rockstar or Microsoft was able to offer any comment, but both said they would respond - and hopefully allay our fears - later in the day, so stay tuned for an update.

You can read Sam Houser's full statement over atKotaku.

Matt Cundy
I don't have the energy to really hate anything properly. Most things I think are OK or inoffensively average. I do love quite a lot of stuff as well, though.