Grand Theft Auto III was meant to be hitting PlayStation 3s today. However, Rockstar’s genre defining and utterly wonderful game hasn’t quite made the transition, slipping at the last moment due to music licensing issues.
“Due to an unforeseen complication,” said SCEA’s Grace Chen, “the Grand Theft Auto III PS2 Classic is not publishing with today’s Store post. We will update you when a new release date has been identified.”
“We apologize for the inconvenience,” she added.
“There were some last minute issues with getting clearance for a certain audio track in the game,” said the company’s Morgan Haro. “But the teams at Rockstar are on it to review how to best get this title on PSN.”
It was hoped that the game would also release today in Europe.
Jakster123x
Yes, the classic music licensing issue.
cam the man
We’ll just have to wait a little bit longer.
Izorpo
if renewing the license for GTAIII is a pain I’d hate to see what the music on Vice City would bring
Blayney
Surely release it anyway and patch the track back in?
sabbat7001
In the past I may have agreed but with the recent TSA aticles discussing how much patches can cost a company I don’t see that happening. Especially for a game that is over 10 years old and (I presume) a port rather than an HD remaster.
Bilbo_bobbins
absolute classic
The Lone Steven
Apparently, it is only one track that has caused GTA3 to be delayed. If true then ruddy hell! I hope it will only take a week or two if it turns out to be only one track as i doubt it takes a month to sort it out. :) Of course, knowing SCEE, they will delay it for some BS reason after Rockstar have sorted out the issue and we won’t see it untill September 2020.
E8_BALL_
I doubt earth(at least as we know it,) will see 2020, nevermind GTAIII.
RudeAwakening
If you believe the Mayan’s earth only has 5 months left..maybe a bit less!
stueeeee
But all the music in gta3 is made up isent it? It’s the other two that have real world music….
Youles
I guess the tracks still belong to someone.
It would be nice if we could play music from our hard-drive like you could with the GTAs on PSP.
Forrest_01
No no, GTA 3 definitely had licensed tracks.
Perhaps not all of them were licensed (i can see some of the dance tracks being made up), but i specifically remember tracks from Royce da 5’9 (mainly as the two tracks appear in the same order on his album as they did on the station) & i seem to recall other hip hop artists possibly appearing as well.
R1MJAW
Damn, you beat me to it … I was just checking the manual.
Forrest_01
Heh – I still got it!! :)
*starts bogling a little bit*
Amazing really – I can’t remember for the most part what i did yesterday, but ask me about a game over a decade old & ‘bam’!
stueeeee
I always remember the ‘she’s on fire’ song, it was on so often. But I mainly listened to chatterbox.
R1MJAW
No, all of the music is by proper artists (ie. not written specifically for the game) e.g. all the tracks on MSX are all artists on Moving Shadow, Flashback FM is the soundtrack from Scarface, etc.
Forrest_01
It truly was the birth of the 3rd person ‘crime’ game & also potentially the epic soundtrack.
E8_BALL_
A great soundtrack undoubtedly, but for me, Andreas has the best game soundtrack ever
Forrest_01
…After Vice of course! :)
R1MJAW
Agreed Forrest, VC has by far the best soundtrack, closely followed by GTA3.
Sympozium
Steve Vai was in Vice City in a band called Alcatrazz so therefore Vice City is bettah.
E8_BALL_
Hmm i guess it’s down to your higher preference in music. Last time i played andreas, i was into rap, but loved the country tracks etc too. Possibly now, i’d sway more towrds the V.City selection, as an overall soundtrack. (i just have found memories of cruising the countryside with Tom Petty in the background:)
tactical20
MSX FM all day. I actually know MC Codebreaker. FACT!
Moving Shadow went into administration a long time ago. Such an amazing label.
Alex C
Agreed, some great records on there. I still own lots of them!
skibadee
I’m hoping Rockstar will do at least one in HD.
xdarkmagician
I can’t help but think, get their licences in order is something they should have done before they announced a release date. This just gives whomever is holding out a bigger bargaining chip. But if they’re having problems with GTAIII- getting some of Vice City’s music is going to impossible, especially “Billie Jean”