Grand Theft Auto IV (also known as GTA IV and GTA 4) is a sandbox-style action-adventure video game developed by Rockstar North.[10] It is the ninth title in the Grand Theft Auto series and the first in its fourth generation. Grand Theft Auto IV was released worldwide (except Japan)[11] on 29 April 2008 for both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.[12] Exclusive Xbox 360 episodic packs are due for release in August via Xbox Live. The game is set in a redesigned Liberty City, based heavily on New York City. It follows Niko Bellic, a Serbian veteran of the Bosnian War[13] who comes to the United States in search of the "American Dream", only to find his cousin has lied about the wealth that was promised to be awaiting him. Grand Theft Auto IV is the first console game in the series to feature an online multiplayer mode, which contains 15 different game types. Prior to its release, Grand Theft Auto IV was very highly anticipated, with experts predicting record-breaking sales and revenue. Since its release, the game has received universal acclaim from video game critics.[14][15] According to Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey, a financial consultant for Take-Two Interactive Software, around 150 game developers worked on Grand Theft Auto IV.[16] The team consists of core members of the Grand Theft Auto III team, albeit larger.[17] The story of Grand Theft Auto IV was written by Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser.[17] The Rockstar North team made two trips to New York for research, one at the start of the project (which is done with every GTA game) and another smaller one further into development.[18] A full-time research team, based in New York, handled further requests for information ranging from the ethnic minority of a neighbourhood to videos of traffic patterns.[17] The game uses Rockstar's own RAGE game engine, which was previously used in Rockstar Table Tennis, in combination with the Euphoria game animation engine.[2] Instead of pre-written animations, Euphoria controls the way the player moves, enabling character movements to be more realistic.[19] The Euphoria engine also enables NPCs to react in a realistic way to the player's actions. In one preview, a player knocked an NPC out of a window and the character grabbed onto a ledge to stop himself from falling.[20] The game also uses middleware from Image Metrics to facilitate intricate facial expressions and ease the process of incorporating lip-synching.[21] Rockstar Games initially appeared to be committed to the original 16 October 2007 release date. However, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter suggested that Take-Two may choose to delay the release of the game in order to boost its financial results for 2008 and to avoid competing with the release of other highly anticipated titles.[22] Rockstar responded by saying that Grand Theft Auto IV was still on track for release in "late October".[23] On 2 August 2007, Take-Two announced that Grand Theft Auto IV would miss its original release date of 16 October 2007 contrary to their previous statements, and would be delayed to their second fiscal quarter (February--April) of 2008. Their stated reason for the date change was "due to additional development time required to complete the title."[24] In a later conference call with investors, Take-Two's Strauss Zelnick attributed the delay to "almost strictly technological problems... not problems, but challenges."[25] It was revealed that technical difficulties with the PlayStation 3 version of the game contributed to the delay.[26] On 24 January 2008, Take-Two announced that Grand Theft Auto IV would be released on 29 April 2008.[12] At a Take-Two shareholder meeting on 18 April 2008, Take-Two CEO Ben Feder announced that GTA IV had already "gone gold" and was "in production and in trucks en route to retailers"[27] Overall, Grand Theft Auto IV took over 1000 people more than three and a half years to complete, with a total cost estimated at approximately $100 million. The cost of the game would make it the most expensive game ever developed.[28] GTA 4