Liberty City for PS3 and PC Delayed

Earlier this morning, Shacknews was reporting that the PC and PlayStation 3 versions of Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City have been delayed from release.

The Episodes from Liberty City add-on packs for Grand Theft Auto IV, in the form of The Ballad of Gay Tony and The Lost & Damned, were originally intended to be made available for download this month, but this has now been delayed to 16 April.

The reason for the delay was not originally clear. All that was said by Rockstar was that Sony Europe asked for some minor content changes to be made. Rockstar also added that the changes would not affect gameplay elements, rating elements, and ultimately fans' and gamers' enjoyment of the titles.

In a press release sent to Do Gaming later today, Rockstar Games has answered some of gamers' questions around the delay. The press release says that Sony requested that some of the in-game radio station, television and Internet content be edited.

Here are some of the questions it answers (as quoted from the press release):

Those game changes sound pretty minor. Why does the game have to be delayed a whole two weeks?

Unfortunately, with each round of changes comes fully re-testing the game and a full re-submission to PlayStation. This is the nature of the game submission process. Believe us, if we could expedite the turnaround any sooner – we would. We are dying to get this game in the hands of fans who’ve waited for it for so long in the first place.

Why is content being edited just for the European release? This doesn’t seem fair.

There are different regional requirements for content – whether dictated by ratings boards like the ESRB and BBFC or by SCEE – this is pretty standard in the world of entertainment.

If this content is only being edited for the PlayStation 3 release, and only in Europe… why does everyone in North America etc have to wait? And why do PC players have to wait at all?

This was a tough decision but with a simultaneous release, everyone can experience multiplayer simultaneously, take part in online events together, be on level ground on leaderboards, etc.

Any further questions can also be asked at Rockstar's website.

Episodes from Liberty City was previously only available to Xbox 360 gamers, and Grand Theft Auto IV fans on other platforms have been keen to get their hands on these two expansion packs to the original game.

(Updated 19 March 13:35)