Red Dead Redemption sold over 13 million units worldwide, concreting its status as mainstay for the publisher.

And speaking recently about the balance of launching new franchises and turning to trusted sellers for the firm, Zelnick said: “”I pretty much know the ones that I can assure you are permanent. It’s obvious that GTA is a permanent franchise as long as we keep delivering this incredible quality; it seems quite obvious that Red Dead is a permanent franchise, again with the same caveat, or Borderlands, for example, and NBA and others.”

He went on: “But not everything is going to be a permanent franchise. We can do very well even if it’s not. I would like to see us grow with a couple more great franchises in the next couple years and we’re launching Evolve; we have very high hopes for that.”

Rockstar, in January 2013, seemingly confirmed that a sequel was incoming. So the question’s not if, but when, right? E3 2014, then? That’s just one week and a few days away!

Lindsay Lohan apparently wants to sue Rockstar for using her image in Grand Theft Auto V without permission. But although a likeness is indeed there, the honor’s already gone to model Shelby Welinder.

Ms. Lohan probably just needs the money, because she certainly could do without the attention. Also, we must point out that she hasn’t actually filed anything, she only called up her lawyers to presumably ask questions.

Via TMZ.

It’ll be release on iOS and Android devices, as well as Amazon Kindle and Windows Mobile devices.

Press release:

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Mobile Coming this December

Before GTAV took us to the sun-bleached sidewalks and humming concrete freeways of present-day Los Santos and beyond, there was Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the biggest GTA of the PS2 era. Now, head back to the early 90s with CJ and the Grove Street Families when Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas comes to mobile devices next month.

Encompassing Los Santos, San Fierro, Las Venturas and everything in between, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has been upgraded for its mobile release. Newly remastered graphics including dynamic and detailed shadows, greater draw distance, an enriched color palette, plus enhanced character and car models make this the best-looking version of San Andreas yet.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas also features brand new touch controls including contextual control options to display buttons only when you need them and three different control schemes for driving and maneuvering, as well as a reworked checkpoint system for easier progression. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for mobile also comes equipped with full controller support, including Made for iOS controller capability on iOS7. It will be available for select iOS, Android, Amazon Kindle and Windows Mobile devices. Stay tuned for more details in the weeks ahead.

Via Rockstar.

Patch Notes:

• Built in measures to prevent users from losing their progress when there is a cloud outage
• Built in a number of measures to protect players’ cash balances even if there are network problems
• Fixed an issue where on rare occasions during network problems the player could lose their Online vehicle or mods after exiting GTA Online

Rockstar stressed that if you’re still experiencing problems after this patch, you should visit their support website, or contact their support team.

“Congratulations to the team at Rockstar for their success. We look forward to getting the record back before the next GTA title,” Activision UK senior brand manager Kevin Flynn told MCV.

Is it possible? GTAV has swiftly taken over Call of Duty: Black Ops record, and is full-throttle on track to sideline FIFA13 to become the bestselling game of all time in the UK, a feat that should be easily accomplished based on the title’s current trajectory.

So, can Call of Duty regain its crown? Let’s hear your thoughts.

GTA V “has already overtaken sales of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 in just four weeks, and is now snapping at the heels of FIFA 13,” MCV reports.

It’s also on track to become the biggest-selling title in the UK of all-time, “a feat it should achieve comfortably”, the magazine continued.

The game became the fastest-selling title of all time in UK when it launched, has broken several records, and has one of the most viewed trailers for an action-adventure game online.

For PS3:

• For PlayStation 3 users, a PlayStation Network server issue was detected that was limiting the amount of possible concurrent users. This was preventing most players from accessing GTA Online altogether and as of this morning, that problem was resolved.
• There is an issue that is preventing some players from getting through the first tutorial mission across both platforms. Many players have been able to get through this with repeated retries, and we are working on unblocking this for everyone as soon as possible.
• This morning, we experienced some instability across the GTA Online services which is affecting even people who have progressed beyond the tutorial mission. We are identifying these issues now and are working to restore stability for users as soon as possible.
• For the time being and until we have been able to get everybody access to GTA Online and things are running smoothly, we have disabled the option of purchasable GTA$ cash packs. Players can however keep on earning GTA$ by pulling off Jobs and other profitable gameplay activities rather than purchasing cash packs.

Rockstar promises to send live an Xbox 360 update soon.

Access to GTA Online

Access to Grand Theft Auto Online is free with your copy of Grand Theft Auto V. On October 1st there will be a small downloadable Title Update released on PlayStation Network and Xbox LIVE. Upon installation of that Title Update, direct access to begin GTA Online will be unlocked in your GTAV game menu. You will be able to jump right into GTA Online via the 4th (bottom) slot in your GTAV character wheel. We’ve received many questions asking for a specific confirmation of what exact time GTA Online will be available but of course this is contingent on both Title Updates becoming available on each console’s network. As a general timeframe, we do expect the Title Update to become available on PSN and Xbox Live starting around 7AM ET tomorrow morning, and your best bet is to stay tuned throughout the day here at the Rockstar Newswire and by following us on Twitter and Facebook where we will be keeping everyone updated.

When does GTA Online Take Place?

Some people who’ve been playing through Grand Theft Auto V’s Story Mode have been inquiring how the narrative of GTA Online correlates or crosses over. Grand Theft Auto Online is set a few months prior to the events of Grand Theft Auto V’s single player story.

Home and Garage Security

There’s plenty of havoc and treachery you can cause out in the open world of course, but in order to prevent some really annoying “griefing”, we’ve designed house party invitations specifically to be a friendly social affair where players can visit each other’s pads without fear of having them ruined or losing their hard-earned vehicles in the process. If someone invites you into their property, then it is considered a friendly visit and you will not be able to shoot up their place or steal their cars from their garage. By the way, in any given lobby, if you and another player own the same piece of property, you will each be able to enter your own personal instance of that property at any given time. You will also be able to enter each other’s instance of that property if you exchange and accept an invite. This way, multiple instances of ownership of the same property within a lobby can co-exist.

GTA$ and Fair Play

To allay some concerns we’ve heard on this subject, we can assure you that the game is designed such that the option of purchasable GTA$ should not disrupt the playing field – and there are a few mechanics in place to help ensure that. All players still have to rank up with Reputation Points (RP) in order to get access to purchase high-end items. No one can begin GTA Online and simply spend a lot of money out of the gate to get a leg up. You will have to earn your stripes and play to unlock access to the aspirational clothes, guns and other items. Please also remember that in GTA Online, hustling to afford the finer things by earning GTA$ doing robberies, stick-ups, winning races and other profitable activities is a fun gameplay experience rather than ever being a ‘grind’. As we mentioned on Wednesday, we will constantly tweak all areas of the game to make it play fairer and iron out any balancing problems (while fixing all the other problems we encounter!), but we really need your help in figuring out what those issues are. So please work with us on that!

An Ever-Growing Collection of Jobs

Grand Theft Auto Online is a long-term GTA experience that you can expect to be built-upon, to grow and to evolve in many ways in the coming weeks, months and beyond. As part of that, there will be a massive amount of Jobs available to play over time as we will be regularly adding new ones for you to enjoy. Additionally, you will soon be helping to add content to the game world yourselves, by creating custom Race and Deathmatch Jobs through the Content Creator tool which we plan to release this fall. Grand Theft Auto Online is a collaborative project between Rockstar and all GTA players worldwide, so expect that we’ll effectively be working on it together from day one. As a very small example, the Crew Hierarchies feature that was introduced a few weeks back on Social Club was a direct result of popular fan feedback from last year – and we’ll be looking at the GTA Online community’s feedback, input and ideas constantly to help inform how the game itself will grow and evolve. As mentioned last week, we’ll be looking closely at your feedback emails sent to GTAOnline@rockstargames.com and in the GTA Online Suggestion Box board at the forthcoming Social Club Forums. We’re very much looking forward to welcoming you as active participants in the world of GTA Online starting tomorrow.

The Character Creation System

The hereditary-based character creation system of Grand Theft Auto Online allows for a multitude of options to create your avatar that will then inhabit the online world of Los Santos & Blaine County. Choose your gender then decide on your mother and father. From there, you can choose to give one parent genetic dominance or leave them more evenly matched. The choice is yours. Next, you adjust a set of lifestyle variables which help determine your character’s appearance and starting stats. Decide how much sleep he/she gets, how much partying they indulge in, how much honest work versus illegal activity, and more. Essentially, you can adjust the genetics to wind up with a fresh faced lad or lass or a grizzled, haggard degenerate or anywhere in between! You’ll also be able to preview your end result in real time all throughout to ensure you’re satisfied before putting your character on a direct flight to LS. Of course, once you’re out and about in the open world, you can further customize your character with haircuts, clothing and accessories to suit your tastes.

Exclusive Social Club Features

In Grand Theft Auto Online, Social Club members get access to weaponry and vehicular unlocks, a whole new suite of Crew features to represent and coordinate with your squad, and special tools to get the most out of Rockstar Jobs and user-created Jobs when the Content Creator tool launches this fall. Check out the updated rockstargames.com/V/socialclub for an overview of GTA Online Social Club features including new Crew customization possibilities like Crew colors and Emblem vehicle decals, Crew messaging options, and Open or Closed Crew Sessions. Plus unlocks like the Sawed-Off Shotgun, the Annis Elegy RH8 and the John Marston Parent option to do the Marston family proud in the modern day West. Also stay tuned for info later in October about the very first GTA Online Social Club Events which will have special Event Playlists curated by Rockstar, reserved in-game license plate awards for top players, and more. So, if you haven’t joined, we recommend doing so!

From Rockstar:

We are humbled and overwhelmed by the response to Grand Theft Auto V – literally overwhelmed in the case of some of our servers! We sincerely hope you’re enjoying your visit to Los Santos and we know many of you have plenty of questions about Grand Theft Auto Online. First, we thought it would be useful to provide some details of the roll out of GTA Online, and how we hope you will be involved in making the game everything it can be. • Grand Theft Auto Online is going to be something brand new for us: a fully realized and living world for multiple players that will continue to grow and take shape over time. • The ultimate shape of GTA Online will be determined as much by you, the player, as by the work we put in. What you like and don’t like, what you play and what you want will determine how the game develops and what it turns into. • Everything we do will be informed by feedback from you all – from the types of missions that roll out to all kinds of future content. • We are planning for a constant stream of new content, tweaks and updates in the weeks and months ahead. • The first couple of weeks we expect to be heavily focused on tuning the experience as it goes from internal testing to the reality of being played by tons of people in the real world so that all the usual teething problems for an online game are overcome. We hope it will all run incredibly smoothly, but please bear with us if it doesn’t, and help us fix any and all problems! • After that, we will begin releasing content updates and giving you the opportunity to make your own content.

This is vital for the ongoing success of the game. The first few months of Grand Theft Auto Online will be critical as everyone enters this dynamic new world for the first time. Plenty of issues are bound to occur. Remember this interesting character? One thing we are already aware of, and are trying to alleviate as fast as we can, is the unanticipated additional pressure on the servers due to a significantly higher number of players than we were anticipating at this point – we are working around the clock to buy and add more servers, but this increased scale is only going to make the first few days even more temperamental than such things usually are. This is part of the problem some of you have been experiencing with the iFruit App and some Social Club services – we apologize in advance for this and thank you for your patience in this area. More than ever, we need your help to report your experiences, findings, likes, loves, dislikes and hates – and we will be looking at your feedback constantly to tune the game into its optimal shape and help guide how Grand Theft Auto Online will grow and evolve past this initial period. We will be checking out how people are playing and what they are not playing or not enjoying, while also monitoring feedback via two other new Rockstar channels: • GTAOnline@rockstargames.com - This email address will be active from launch day as a place to send your input and feedback direct to us relating to the game. • GTA Online Forums at Social Club - At some point this fall after the initial release of GTA Online, we are planning to launch Social Club Forums where players can chat with one another about their online experiences as well as access a GTA Online Suggestion board to post about any suggested features, tweaks and changes you want to see.

From launch, up to 16 players can enter the world together to partake in everything from: • Open-World Crime and Chaos - Go on your own or round up your friends to explore the open world together – catch a movie, go mountain biking, hit the shooting range and much more. Want to test the law? Knock over a convenience store, take down a gang or rob an armored truck for easy cash and Reputation. • Jobs - Los Santos and Blaine County are ripe with opportunity for the ambitious and criminal minded. Take on Missions and an array of other Jobs as a lone wolf, team up with your Crew or join fellow mercenaries and degenerates to pull off a wide range of robberies and illicit activities together. • Races - Everything from classic street competition and off-road tracks to boat racing on the open ocean, or take to the skies in aerial events. Jump into the madness of a GTA Race, or try out a brand new race type, Rally, where driver and co-pilot work together to navigate treacherous courses at high speeds. • Sports - Join your friends / any random stranger for a game of tennis, a round of golf or go base jumping and more, all for cash and Reputation. • Customization - Create your character using the Character Creator – then earn some cash and spend it getting dressed for success. You can also collect and customize cars for your garage and personalize your full weapons cache. • Reputation and Cash Flow - Reputation is earned from all your online exploits in everything you do in GTA Online – and will help you rank up, providing access to new features, weapons and criminal contacts. Spend cash you’ve gained on cars, clothes, guns, properties and much more. You can either quickly accumulate cash through profitable activities like knocking over armored cars, winning street races, doing stick-ups or a host of other cash-making endeavors – or if you’re the completely instant gratification type, you can choose to buy denominations of GTA$. You will have the option to purchase GTA$ through the in-game Store. The game and its economy have been designed and balanced for the vast majority of players who will not buy extra cash. There is no in-game paywall and nothing that should disrupt the balance of the game. You don’t have to spend real money to attain the cars, guns, clothes, flash and style of a high-roller in Los Santos, but can if you wish to get them a little quicker. The economy is balanced differently from the single player economy, and cash earned in one cannot be taken over to the other. Most players will earn cash much faster Online than in Story Mode. • Growing Pains - There will be the typical growing pains for an online game, including but not limited to crashes, glitches, crazy bugs, gameplay modes and mechanics that need re-balancing and other surprises! Even in GTAV Story Mode, some of you may have seen a few odd and even amusing little glitches out there last week. This sort of thing is inevitable in a massive open-world game and there’ll surely be lots more unexpected oddities like this in the Online world next week – rest assured we’ll be monitoring and actively doing all we can to smooth such things out as they happen, but we need your help to find them, as well as your feedback to help fine tune all of the game’s systems so everything is perfectly balanced.

Here is a quick overview of a few initial things we’re working on for the first few weeks of Grand Theft Auto Online, alongside an aggressive period of tuning and finessing the game. We will give you dates for all of this content as soon as we have them – bear in mind that the order of things may well change, and we will probably add some extra stuff as well! • The Content Creator - The Content Creator will launch with tools to tailor and publish your own Deathmatches & Races. • The Beach Bum Pack - Featuring 4 new amazing beach fun vehicles, over 300 new items of incredible down tempo leisure wear and 2 new but not remotely relaxing weapons. • Capture the Flag - GTA Online’s take on the classic CTF mode including the ability to make your own using The Content Creator. • Heists - This update will introduce full-on cooperative Heist missions that will require careful planning, teamwork and sharp execution – along with the Heist Planning Board for your apartment. Just to be clear, all of these updates will be free. We’ll have more info on this and much more additional content as our plans develop through the launch period, and as we get feedback from you. Please stay tuned for further info and updates. And remember – we need your help to make this experience all it can be.

Grand Theft Auto V is the least surprising No. 1 to ever grace the UK charts, as the game has broken all records in the country, becoming the fastest selling game of all time.

Pro Evolution Soccer 14 debut at No. 2, with The Last of Us shooting up to No. 3, thanks to hardware bundling, while Saints Row: The IV settled for, well, fourth.

Elsewhere, you’ll see Aliens: Colonial Marines back in the top ten and settling at No. 9, a beneficiary of Grand Theft Auto V, as those who purchased Rockstar’s title became eligible to a cheap copy of the Gearbox-developed game. Aliens: Colonial Marines saw a 913 percent increase in sales.

Here’s the top 20, courtesy UKIE:

1. GRAND THEFT AUTO V
2. PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2014
3. THE LAST OF US
4. SAINTS ROW IV
5. TOM CLANCY’S SPLINTER CELL: BLACKLIST
6. MINECRAFT: XBOX 360 EDITION
7. DIABLO III
8. DISNEY INFINITY
9. ALIENS: COLONIAL MARINES
10. KINGDOM HEARTS HD 1.5 REMIX
11. LEGO BATMAN 2: DC SUPER HEROES
12. CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS II
13. GRAND THEFT AUTO IV
14. LEGO THE LORD OF THE RINGS
15. MAX PAYNE 3
16. RAYMAN LEGENDS
17. NEED FOR SPEED MOST WANTED
18. FARMING SIMULATOR 2013
19. PAYDAY 2
20. HARVEST MOON 3D: A NEW BEGINNING

So I’ll make this short and quick: how is it?

Let’s talk! Do it here: The Official Gamesthirst Sandbox.

“All of us at Take-Two are thrilled with the initial response to Grand Theft Auto V. Once again, the team at Rockstar Games have outdone themselves, setting the entertainment industry’s new standard for creativity, innovation and excellence,” said Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO of Take-Two. “Beginning at midnight on Monday, consumers around the world gathered in anticipation to be among the first to experience the evolution of this remarkable series. In North America alone, more than 8,300 stores opened their doors at midnight to welcome fans whose loyalty and enthusiasm were rewarded with what The New York Times called ‘the most immersive spectacle in interactive entertainment’. We are incredibly proud of Rockstar Games’ creative achievement and could not be more pleased with the success of this launch.”

Are you among the many gamers who now own Grand Theft Auto V? Share your thoughts on the game!

Here ya go:

Vehicles

• Spawn Buzzard B B LB B B B LB LT RB Y B Y <– (helicopter with missiles & guns)
• Spawn Comet RB B RT Right LB LT A A X RB
• Spawn Sanchez B A LB B B LB B RB RT LT LB LB
• Spawn Trashmaster B RB B RB Left Left RB LB B Right
• Spawn Limo RT Right LT Left Left RB LB B Right
• Spawn Stunt Plane B Right LB LT Left RB LB LB Left Left A Y
• Spawn Caddy B LB Left RB LT A RB LB B A
• Spawn Rapid GT RT LB B Right LB RB Right Left B RT
• Spawn Duster Right Left RB RB RB Left Y Y A B LB LB

Items

• Give Parachute Left Right LB LT RB RT RT Left Left Right LB

Player

• Raise Wanted Level RB RB B RT Left Right Left Right Left Right
• Lower Wanted Level RB RB B RT Right Left Right Left Right Left
• Explosive Melee Attacks Right Left A Y RB B B B LT
• Drunk Mode Y Right Right Left Right X B Left
• Fast Run Y Left Right Right LT LB X

World

• Change Weather RT A LB LB LT LT LT X Slidey Cars Y RB RB Left RB LB RT LB
• Slow Mo Y Left Right Right X RT RB

Note that these cheats are mostly for Xbox 360, however some will work for PS3.