GTA 5 - "We want the game to be as good as it needs to be"

The news of GTA V's four month delay was disappointing to say the least, even prompting some speculation that the set back could throw off the next console cycle. On the decidedly less eloquent side of things have been some of the fans, who have apparently come up with all sorts of conspiracy theories to explain why GTA V would need an additional four months of development time (among them, claims that Rockstar was pushing the game back so as to accomodate the next console cycle, the most plausible of the accusations).

Taking notice of the criticism, Rockstar has posted an update to the original blog post announcing the delay, issuing a statement clarifying:

"To those of you saying or seeing various conspiracy theories about there being some other ulterior motive for this delay, rest assured that they’re all nonsense – literally the only reason we’ve delayed the release is because we want the game to be as good as it needs to be."

The studio remains on track to release the game on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 upon its release date. As the studio has made no indication to put the title out on any other platform, there's little reason to think that they intended to delay it for any reason other than the ones they've specified.

During an investor's call regarding the company's third quarter results, Take Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick was asked about the pending release of perhaps their most important release to date.

Basically, there have been rumors floating around, about the possibility that two different versions of Grand Theft Auto V would be coming out. One for current consoles and one for the next generation of machines. Specifically, the PS4 and Xbox 720.

And what did Zelnick have to say in response? Don't bet on it. The CEO, according to the GTAForums:

"There is not one gamer who is going to sit out of GTA V hoping that something that is going to come along down the road that's better. It's going to blow everyone away, and it's going to be in the market in September."

The rumors were largely due to the game's release, which was originally slated for March 2013, being moved to September 2013. Which, conveniently enough, is close to when the new consoles are due.