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"Grand Theft Auto IV" is expected to blow away hot shooter
"Halo 3" when fans begin sating their desires Tuesday or
the highly popular videogame by Rockstar Games.
"GTA IV: Liberty City
Stories" goes on sale a minute into Tuesday.
Many US shops plan to be open at
midnight for expected queues of die-hard fans eager to play the game
in which triumph depends on acts such as carjacking, gambling and
killing.
"This is the most
anticipated I've seen," said Michael Cooper as he worked in the
videogame department of a Best Buy electronics store in California.
"People have been asking for it since January."
Cooper was fielding questions
from college student Eric Levine, who was shopping for a Microsoft
Xbox 360 videogame console on which to play "GTA: IV."
"My girlfriend is going to
kill me," Levine said with a laugh, saying he was likely to
return after the videogame goes on sale at midnight to make certain
he got a copy. "I just get hooked. It's, like, addicting."
Analysts revised their
predictions as the clock neared midnight, saying sales of the
videogame are likely to blast past their initial expectations to
some nine million copies in the first week.
Analyst Edward Woo at Wedbush
Morgan Securities predicts "GTA: IV" will be "the
game of the year."
The Entertainment Software Rating
Board (ESRB) stamped a "Mature" label on "GTA:
IV" banning US retailers from selling the game to anyone less
than 17 years old.
Rockstar is owned by Take-Two
Interactive, a New York City firm that is a takeover target of the
world's largest videogame maker Electronic Arts.
Take-Two rejected a
two-billion-dollar offer from EA and delayed talk of negotiation
until after the release of "GTA: IV" on April 29.
Analysts believe EA will need to
raise its offer to close a deal with Take-Two, which hopes to gain
leverage with a superstar launch of "GTA: IV.
--AFP
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