To all Grand Theft Auto fans, please accept our apologies for the delay, and our promise that the entire team here is working very hard to make the game all it can be. We are doing all we can to help ensure it will meet if not exceed your expectations come September – we thank you for your support and patience.” Read their statement.

Oddly, enough, though, in a world where gamers are forever complaining, and rightfully so, about developers pushing games out too fast and patching them up later, Rockstar got some considerable abuse and disguise hurled at them for choosing to delay the launch, to the point where they issued this statement in the commends section:

“we understand many of you guys are disappointed with this news – unfortunately sometimes such delays are necessary in all forms of entertainment, and especially in the case of a game experience as massive and complex as GTAV. However this does not give you free reign to be abusive in comments. The general rules of common courtesy, decency and behavior as listed above the Comment Box still apply here, therefore anyone continuing to post abusive comments will have their privileges suspended.”

Rockstar also squashed rumours that there were other reasons for the delay, saying: “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.”

Well, I for one am glad that the game has been pushed back, because I’d rather have a quality product put in my hands than one that’s barely been play tested and requires several patches within the first month.