The Grand Theft Auto V Delay Should Make You Happy

Ah yes, Grand Theft Auto V, the latest installment of the much-beloved and much-vilified Grand Theft Auto series. Thursday was a tough day for fans of the series (at this point, who isn’t considered a fan of the series with their sales numbers?) as the title, which was originally slated for a Spring of 2013 release date, got pushed all the way back to September 20th, 2013, pushing it back from Q1/Q2 all the way back to Q3 of this year. This is a whole period of months that could have been used to play the fifth numbered installment in the series, which will now come to gamers during the very busy fall gaming season after the summer doldrums pass.

If you were to read around the internet right now you’ll get the distinct impression that most people are just kind of pissed. In a way, it is hard to blame people for being upset; the game was due out at a certain time and got pushed back a few months, what gives? It also breaks the Grand Theft Auto tradition of late of releasing in the Spring when there isn’t as much competition from AAA titles like there is in the Fall. Take-Two’s shares dropped, people went nuts on their official blog and clearly the world is ending, right?

Wrong.

You want them to take their time on Grand Theft Auto V and make sure that it is the best game that it could possibly be, not for them to rush it to market and have to continually patch it to get it up to snuff or have it missing parts of the game that couldn’t make the final cut. So often we see games rushed to market and what is worse than getting a game on launch day, popping it into your system, watching all of the opening logos that for some reason you can’t skip, and then being prompted to download a patch so the game won’t melt your system down? i can’t think of much else.

This shows that Rockstar is dedicated to bringing you, the gamer, the best possible game in a franchise that has a certain level of quality to live up to. Sure, I don’t think that Grand Theft Auto IV was as good as some of the past games and that some of the magic has left the series, but I’m not about to complain about them taking some extra time on this game to make it better. Grand Theft Auto IV was lacking in a few areas and if these extra months can add to the finished product, I say go to town, I’m not going anywhere.

So give Rockstar a break, as they aren’t looking to do anything other than deliver a product that is worth your $60 and not deliver a sub-par title. I wish that more companies were doing this as opposed to rushing games to market and treating their staff like slave rowers on a Viking ship that you’d see in a cartoon.