The Chairman of Take Two has addressed reports which stemmed from his address to a business summit earlier this week. Zelnick commented that what he said about the release date wasn't intended to be newsworthy, he was just confirming the previous release date which is their second fiscal quarter, so that's anywhere between Februay and April. He also conceeded that with a larger installed base by the time the game ships, this should help to produce benefits in respect to missing the Holiday season.

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Some analysts have speculated that the reason for Grand Theft Auto IV's delay from its original October 16 release date was that Take-Two wanted to hold on to the game until the PlayStation 3's installed user base had overcome the system's slow start and had time to grow significantly.

Zelnick nixed that idea, but did concede that the larger installed base, by the time the game does ship, will help eliminate what negative impact on sales the delay out of the holiday season could have had. He addressed the current industry focus on the end of the year, and what it means for the industry to have so many high-profile games slipping into early next year.