I got a new disc from gamestop for my ps3 version and works fine now, 1hr30 mins w/o a lockup. That's alot longer than before with old disc.

Foolish

@woggerman: Yeah, the myriad SKUs and constant firmware updates of the modern consoles seem to be nullifying (or at least reducing) the major advantage consoles had over PCs: the homogeneous development platform. Everyone predicted this would happen as soon as consoles got hard drives, despite the nonsense MS and others were spewing about ensuring console games would never rely on patches and updates. Of course, it's not as widespread a problem as you see on the PC, but it certainly seems to be spreading. Bummer.

AtomicPlayboy

No problems for me, on the 360.

TonyRockyHorror

Wow, based on some of teh comments are some of you even old enough to be playing this game or in some cases not playing this game? :)

Older 60gig PS3 and (knocks on wood) no problems yet. Any Warhawk beta testers remember a similar situation? Maybe R* should contact Incog and see what was causing their problem. Maybe the 2 could be related.

chip5541

@Sinnix:

Unfortunately, it's probably more likely that the poor man would be disciplined if his bosses knew.

How odd that it's *some* 60 GB PS3s and *some* 360s... does anyone know yet whether the problem is affecting some or all 360 models?

Sevius

Awww man, what a bad start, for such an... *epic* game... Ah well, back to Super Mario World.

redrabbit

Mine didn't freeze during the opening cut scene, but after I finished the multiplayer tutorial, when loading to get back to Niko, it froze. Hasn't done it again since.

ajlafontaine

"I feel terrible about this."

almost sounds like flipped their testers over to tech support. That sounds like something I'd say if I was personally involved in the development/QA process.

That's what I hope at least. Other possibilities are:

1)This is the absolute worst day of RockStar tech support's life. People will quit today and undergo years of therapy.
2)RockStar tech support's staff deserves an award for out-fucking-standing super-empathy. Their customer service powerlevel is truly over 9000

Tubatic

My version has not freezed yet, and ive played it for about 6 or so hours yesterday (amazon delivered it early at around 4:30 pm pacific time) and I have a 60 gig. Hopefully it doesnt start freezing up now.

madbassman39

@ara: Wouldn't be. >_<

ara

SO far game is awesome, however it did freeze while playing darts with Ramon.

KosherInfidel

Tech guy is so used to getting shat upon, if you treat them well, they'll actually care about your problem. WHo knew?

SouthernerCalifornian

has rockstar ever released a game that wasnt a buggy pile of shit? why are we shocked?

dozogovi

@JorgieX: Yeah, that's why the R* support guy said it was happening on the 360. Seriously, you don't have to turn EVERYTHING into a system war. You really don't.

I'm gonna go see if Gamestop will sell me one at lunch today even if I didn't pre-order (I have a $25 gift card) -- if not, I'll just go get one elsewhere.

kingclip

@Buddy_DoQ & Mr.SithNinja: I would be so quick to blame the multiple versions of hardware, the number is so small it shouldn't be of any problem to test them all. For example PS2 has gone through at least 16 hardware iterations, did it have problems because of it?

ara

@JorgieX:

Wow, you need a life man. It's happening on both systems and because your 300 copies from your area aren't affected doesn't mean that the other millions who bought it don't have a problem. Get out of your little bubble.

I still haven't seen anyone trying signing out of Live and PSN to see if this resolves the issue. Rockstar isn't the best coders in my opinion and I bet their net code sucks.

Sollus

Ouch... Poor customers and especially customer support. It's definitely not a clear-cut case of ALL 60Gb PS3s experiencing the same problem; running a PAL one myself and the game runs just fine. The best of luck to everyone involved getting it sorted out, though.

EldonTLH

good on the support guy. i'm hoping that our copy on the 360 doesn't f up.

jaydot

Any press for GTA is good press lol. This will only help it sell more.

PhilESkyline

This customer support guy was obviously stressed out by having a lot of customers yelling at him. It was nice to see him unwind from that one phone call. :) Very nice fellow. Deserves a raise, if not a promotion!

@Brian Crecente: Did you ever get the customer support guy's name? You should recommend him for a commendation! He did a great job of not venting out at you all of a sudden just because he's been wailed on by a bunch of gamers pissed about their games locking up.

Just wow. WOW. We need more customer support folks like him.

NKato

You'd have to be a pretty pathetic programmer if you can't handle the size of a hard drive scaling.

Mommar

Multiple SKUs has no bearing on this type of an issue because at their core, all PS3s and 360s have the same internal processors. In the PS3s case, you add/remove PS2 hardware and HDD size but the core PS3 mechanics are the same across the board (save for smaller chipsets). If anything, this is a firmware issue.

firelogic

Well, gotta say, I'm more confident now in my decision to not join the throngs of people getting this game as early as possible.

Truvill

Uhh Ohhh Spaghettio's

Kadugen

Let's see if it works on my 60gig when I get home.. if it dont, oh well then its time for more Metal Gear Beta.

Derigor

people should notet this is happening across the board on some PS3s AND 360s.

Andromatic

"A very friendly, and obviously unhappy, fellow answered the phone who, after thanking me for not yelling at him and apologizing profusely for the problem, spilled quite a bit of beans on the issue."

I can imagine all the neckbeards calling, mashing all the buttons on their phone and doing their best impressions of Angry Video Game Nerd after someone answers with "Hello, this is Rockstar Suppo-."

Drake Lake

I certainly can feel for the guy. Remember folks, the guy on the other end of the support line is human too... unless they're a robot.

Pezdispenser

I just picked it up for 360 a couple hours ago, and i haven't had a problem yet, but thats sux for those unlucky folks who are havin this problem

smuckersisgood

see its funny the double standards that flow around the industry...when Rockstar has game breaking issues with 2 of there bigger releases for the year(one of them being the BIGGEST release of the year) everyone is ok with it, but if its a company that everyone is prejudiced against(EA),everyone is out for blood. I honestly dont care since i have the 360 version and i havent had the issue, but i find the hypocrisy funny as all hell. The Bully before the patch was a horrendous mess and noone cared cuz it was the Beloved Rockstar, and the same is going with GTA it seems. I think everyone should get off there high horses and realize that every developer makes mistakes, not just EA and Activision.

Rastaman4200

OK, maybe now I'll just get MK Wii. I know I won't like it as much as MK DS, or as much as I would like GTA IV, but still...
Fuck it, who am I kidding? I'm still getting GTA IV first. The n00bs will just have to wait a few weeks to be sufficiently pwned.

jambe

@Buddy_DoQ: Both Sony's and MS's businessplan includes updating the hardware during the lifetime, in order to slash production costs and finally make profit on consoles. This has nothing to do with SKU's, but perhaps with newer hardware versions.
At least be glad MS is improving their hardware continously, or else the 30% RROD rate would never be resolved

sander_dutch

this is probably an issue of more people owning 60GB PS3s at the moment as opposed to 20's 40's & 80's. im thinking that this is an issue of faulty disc authoring where the gta 4 discs were being made.

Andromatic

As a software developer, I can't say I envy R*'s position; this sounds like a difficult bug.

beoba

Yo man this sounds like bull last night the local gamestop sold 300 copies of the game and not one person has returned there copies or called in to complain. I was up untill 4am est with about 11 of my friends messing around on free mode. The game is bangin. This is a PS3 exclusive issue and it was was just posted that the 360 has these problems as well to squektch the fanboys from pouncing on this issue.

JorgieX

I maybe shooting out of left field here but the fact that the exact same problem is happening to the 360 and the PS3 but only on some undetermined models makes me believe the problem is probably from the video card. That makes it doubly hard to verify/check because most people won't open their consoles to verify their video cards (and void warranty).

Considering it's the exact same problem on both system and the likely components to cause this though, I'd say video card (you never know what nVidia is sticking in these systems).

RPGr

It's not the game. It's a sign your console is dying because you leave it on all the damn time.

Earthslide

I give this glitch/bug/issue a 10/10. An excellent mix of mystery, emotion, and character developement.

Rockstar has truly created it's opus with this newly discovered technical issue.

I'll have my full 7-page review later today.

TRT-X

I say it is gremlins. DVD/Blu-ray gremlins. Possibly from the Kremlin.

Ghede

I really hope this doesn't pop up for me this after noon once I get home from work with my new copy.

Hexidecimal

great, now I have to wait , and think, about this all day until i get home. I have a launch 60 gb and will be crushed if it craps out on me when i fire this game up. Serenity now.

britboy68

Like I said, the earlier reports and even Kotaku's original article said it was on the 360. THe internet loves to exaggerate

RageKage

The next 2 weeks -

guy: hello, Rockstar customer support

me: FUCKING FROZEN!!1 I WAITED IN LINE FOR A FUCKING HOUR GAME FROZEN, FIX GAME NOW FUCK FUCK FUCK 60 DOLLARS FROZEN FUCK sgar w;uer ou uhre guwUGHS:UKGH Wu.

seriously though, no problems here.

robotleawesome

A buddy of mine (whom also got a PS3 launch copy) is having the same issues. He returned to his local gamestop the same night and exchanged it for another copy.

AplusBminus

Good customer service? I think this belongs on Consumerist.

Machete_Bear

I just realized...this must be AWFUL for R*'s tech support. GTA fans are probably the only gamers more vulgar and annoying than Halo players. I don't envy them having to deal with a bunch of screaming, "YO GAME IS BROKE MOFUCKA YOU FIX IT" kiddies calling in.

KaneRobot

I was actually thinking of picking this up on the way home, but since I do have a 60gb, I guess I'll wait.

Kawlyn

I have a Launch 60GB PS3, and the game is on its way from Gamefly. Hopefully I will not have this issue, but will report if I do.

Elderwulf

@HurricaneDave: To not hire foreign people? Ever try to get a windows authentication key from a microsoft tech support agent? read them a --44-- DIGIT KEY only to have them have to read back a corosponding --44-- DIGIT KEY.

I am really tempted to not buy this now. I chose work/sleep over picking it up last night, forgot my trade ins this morning only to find out "the internets" is reporting this problem :(

Zaos

I have a PS3 60GB (PAL) and I have not experienced any problems \o/

I am so glad that I learnt this after playing the games some hours. If I had known about this before I played, I would be totally shit scared of this happening to me. Hope they fix it soon, fellow gamers should be able to play games they buy.

Gjerven

Just tried it on our office 360 and it worked great. Got to the 3rd little mission. If it wasn't crunch time around here, I'd be at home playing.

kidko

Fucksticks, I have a 60 gig. I have to wait til I get home to see if I will be affected. It's so hard to play a game with crossed fingers.

TitillatedOcelot

Ouch, I wonder if this is one of the reasons why some game journalists would like to switch and only review retail copies of video games with retail hardware.

Illyr

I posted this under the other "crashing" post, but I think it is relevant here too. I had a 60GB PS3 which had similar problems a few months ago. I got it repaired but I think the problem is related. I sent multiple "tips" into Kotaku but it seemed to fall on deaf ears. Here is my experience, I hope it helps:

When Folklore came out, there were reports of it crashing (like you are describing with GTA) when certain graphical effects were applied. The same situation would cause it to crash every time. I experienced this myself and got my PS3 serviced (it had a few weeks left on warranty). The replacement unit has been fine but I believe there was a legitimate hardware failure based on a somewhat flakey part.
Specifically, I believe the GPU begins to fail on the older PS3s. In particular, if you run a LOT of folding@home then the GPU wears out faster. If you have the crashing problem, try it on a newer PS3 (in store floor model or a friends). I bet it will be fine. If that is case CHECK YOUR WARRANTY AND GET IT REPLACED. I think a crack or flaw develops in the GPU and it needs to be replaced. If you are past warranty, pony up the $50-75 plus shipping for a third party repair. It will only get worse and no software patch will help you. That's my 2 cents.

jim_error404

That man should get a raise. Honesty AND integrity in a call center? Wow.

Sinnix

Remember just a couple years back when a big new console game came out and it worked for everyone. Those were the days.

t0yrobo

Does signing off the PSN fix the issue on the PS3 side of things? MLB 08 pulls this crap with me from time to time and that normally fixes the issue.

Sollus

@Mr.SithNinja: Original 60gig HD, I bought it last November when they announced the new non BC SKU, got it for a bargain and all.

Cruithne

Great, sitting here with a 360 copy that I can't play until after work. Now I'm sitting on pins and needles worried that mine is going to continually lock.

KaneRobot

I just bought a second copy of GTAIV from Gamestop, it also freezes up so buying a new disk dosent help at all. :(

A-10_Thunderbolt

I have the XBOX 360 version and the game froze up on me during one of the first couple of missions where you go to a clothing store. I tried to try on the sunglasses and the game locked up; had to cut power to the 360.

noelix

Haven't experienced the lock up.

DigitalHero

@Buddy_DoQ: You couldn't be more right. I am sure it was the same thing with Bully. You dev on one SKU and some older SKU has a slight difference that just f's everything up.

Mr.SithNinja

This could potentially ruin my day...

Sicrowell

"If only more customers didn't start hooting like slavering mongoloids as soon as the line picks up."

I hear that, as someone who once worked in a billing department of a large telephone company.

Cruithne

Too bad :(

Luckily this wont be a problem for UK ps3 owners as we never really got the chance to buy the 60gb version.

will

Not that this guy isn't a nice guy but maybe he was being so nice because he was told he was on the phone with someone that works with Kotaku? Anyone ever thought of that?

Strider-No.9

Well this does suck. I am somewhat glad that it's not just the PS3 version this time. It usually gets the shit end of the stick in development.

Hopefully they find the problem soon.

LittleBigPlaneteer

@Cruithne: Just out of curiousity... Do you have the original HDD in your or did you upgrade it?

This may be a cache reading issue, considering it seems to be only the 60GB models and 'some" 360's I am going to go out on a limb and say 20gigers....

Mr.SithNinja

Fortunately i have avoided the freeze hammer. However, in a possibly related issue, the Rockstar Social Club is not working, at least for my computer.

dragonsword

With a game release THIS huge (biggest ever?), the people whose games are freezing become a very small, very vocal minority. It must be a hardware issue, which doesn't hit every single system with the same specs. Can't really blame them for not spotting it in QA.

thefais

Wow, he must have had a troubling day. It's great you got someone so courteous and empathetic, it's unfortunate to think that it might be due to some overenthusiastic owners who might have taken their stress out on the poor fellow.

I've got a 60gb launch PS3 and I've concluded that I do want GTAIV as it seems to be an upgrade and an improvement on the series (like another fourth installment, thank you CoD4). That may or may not increase my chances of a crash, but hopefully it'll be fixed before I've got the money to get it.

TwoSetBonus

YES I knew the Interwebs would find a problem with the game, and hey it only took under 8 hours for it to happen.

Seriously though, this era cracks me up. Even just 5 years ago, and obviously beyond that, we'd never know about these problems or it would take a month or so to hear about them in EGM. But now it's just this instant 24/7/365 ability to have information spread rapidly, and put the fear into people. We've already seen it in these comments, people saying they wouldn't buy the game at launch because of worrying about problems with the game.

I'm not saying any of it is wrong per se, I'm just amazed at how things have changed with the constant stream of information that is the Internet. Nothing gets by anymore.

mva5580

Sounds like that guy handled your call very well. I always get a kick out of good tech support :)

fdisk

Again, don't f-ing freak out and jump on the bandwagon. The freeze is very isolated and only happens when during the first cutscene, and never again. I didn't experience it nor did my 30+ friends online last night, but we all have 360's. My 3 PS3 owning friends that got it last night all have launch 60gb's and they didn't have any issue either.

KillerBee

I'm a 360 owner that didn't have that problem, but I did have a problem when trying to restart a particular mission involving Vlad (don't remember the name, I had to do a car chase) - it just sat there loading forever so I had a dashboard moment and started the game again.

AryzonaBay

All I have to say is I played it when I got home last night (360 version) and I didn't have a single issue and I played for an hour or two just fooling around and doing the first few missions. I guess I'm lucky.

Skiam

Bad luck 60GB owners! I wonder if this is because of the various hardware revisions Sony made?

photoboy

My god that would suck. Good thing the 360 I have owned since the 360 was released didn't freeze.

rabidkeebler

We HAVE to protect our children from games that portray technical failures! Sure, it seems like just a fun time, but pretty soon your little Michael will move onto cell phone glitching, red rings, or even blue screening! A recently made up study shows that more than 85% of children ages 12-18 have experienced a "blue screen incident".

Yamen

"If only more support folks were as empathetic and genuinely concerned about the problems their customers are going through."

As someone who worked support for an ISP a few years back before getting a real job, I counter with:

"If only more customers didn't start hooting like slavering mongoloids as soon as the line picks up."

Koztah

I meant to day you never saw this problem to this extent during the last generation of Hardware

woggerman

Good for their customer support service! We could use more sympathetic customer support lines out there, or even ones that simply have some sort of emotion.

bangbangblah

This right here is exactly why we tried to tell Sony and Microsoft to only release a single SKU for their consoles. Now you have multiple hardware variables in what was once a fixed zone. This is exactly why PC games need so much QA and patching after the fact. I bet neither Sony nor Microsoft issued the full range of SKU's for Rockstar to test on.

Buddy_DoQ

You know, with the advent of continuous updates on the firmware as well as with games, it's no wonder this is starting to occur more and more. With Sony and Microsoft updating at a pretty frequent level, developers can't always make a game futureproof. I am not saying that this has anything to do with the GTA IV Bug but you never saw this problem to this extent. PC gamers have been dealing with this for a very long time and I suspect that this will become more of a problem as the consoles continue to mimic PC's capabilities and update functions.

woggerman

What a shame.

Puzzle

Guess I'm one of the lucky 60GB owners that is having no problems.

Ajay

Rockstar rocks, if this was Activision or EA, they will say to shut up and wait in the corner

ban_hammer

This is why I asked for GTA for my birthday. Plenty of time to fix any game ending bugs, and with a million people online playing you know they're going to be found.

Mr_Fuzzypaws

He was probably that nice because everyone else has been screaming at him all morning. I have worked in a call center before and if people yell at me alot I am overly nice to anyone that doesnt call me a bitch and blames me for all of their problems. Good customer service none the less though. Good to see this.

JustJake

@Zenian: Updating the story to include this, but it doesn't appear to be super wide spread. Just really hard to tell at this point.

Brian Crecente

guess I'll be waiting for this game yet. Until it gets fixed I'm not wasting my cash.

DataScream

Wow. Sucks for you guys. Mine works fine. I'm playing it at work!

unicronband

Microsoft could take a lesson from Rockstar's tech support.

HurricaneDave

OMG feels scared of going to buy it in an hour o_0

valhum

Whew, my 60gig PS3 seems to have dodged the bullet.

Cruithne

Good to know that they give an effort to inform us on whats going on...

Are there any hard numbers of the failure ratio on this? Is this a widespread issue like Bully was or is it just the one in a few?

Zenian

I have a 20gig PS3(now 160gig) and it has been running GTA4 like a clock
*knocks on wood*

SofaKingHI

Wonder what the problem could be since its happening to both the consoles. Maybe the game is just to awesome to be played.

ocalot

Oh man, I hope the R* business guys have a party, spa/relaxation retreat, or something planned for the customer service reps after this. If they are already unhappy and getting yelled at this early in the morning it is not going to be good for the rest of the day.

SpishackCola

My 360 version hasn't had this probl OH SHI-

monorailcat

Wow, Rockstar gets, well a star for hiring a decent support guy. this actually more than makes up for the freezing problem that isn't affecting me.

valarmorghulis

Its the first time I see people from any companies support number actually caring about your issue.

HELLSRIDER

Great, guess I'll be waiting for a fix (60gig Owner)

Silvadeus

Ouch, good thing Rockstar is trying to fix this.

Hope they have a fix for this soon.

exkon

Wow, that really blows chunks. Too bad I don't have an Xbawks or P3 to test it out for myself.
T_T

Channing

60gb Emotion Engine edition working fine for me.

stereoa

A customer support rep with empathy!?

He's gonna get fired within a week.

Frank

Didnt we hear the same, "I feel terrible about this." about bully.
Sorry somethings fundementally wrong.

Ryuujin1024

I have not had a single problem with my copy, and I have a launch 60GB PS3. I'm sure they'll find a fix though. Hopefully it doesn't involve wiping HDD's. That would suck.

CitizenInsane27

It SOUNDS like a disc problem to me, esp. since it's multi-platform.

kingclip

It SOUNDS

kingclip

Playing the 360 version on a relatively new piece of hardware and having no problems. If it only occurs during the intro I guess I'm alright.

pandemicennui

I had it freeze on me once while it was loading my save data after I had manually reloaded the game. PS3, here.

PlayerX

@latinogamer:I do too. I don't have the game yet, but I was planning on getting it soon. Now I guess I'll wait for a patch or at least an explanation before I pick it up. Shit.

homernoy

Huh, didn't have any problems with my copy. Playing it on the 20GB PS3.

phalanges

Imagining someone waiting through that agonizingly long 7 minute install only to boot and have the game freeze makes me smile...

I am evil.

tex1ntux

awww crap, I have a 60gb ps3

latinogamer

I was just getting ready to leave the office to start playing GTAIV at the house, but now I'm a bit paranoid that I'll get this shit happening to me. My 360 copy arrived about two hours ago and is just waiting for me to dive in.

coalhalo

Argh! Just bought my copy, got a 60GB PS3 sitting at home. Won't know if it works until tonight.

I was already filled with anticipation, now I am also filled with angst.

badasscat

My bad....360 Elite w/ Falcon chip

KosherInfidel

@Mr.SithNinja: Original HDD here, launch 60gb NTSC, freezing.

Can't make it through opening cutscene w/o skipping it. Game freezes both in cutscenes and during gameplay.

I'd like to add that if it happens during a cutscene, the sound from the cutscene continues until the cutscene would be complete. Reinstalling has had no effect. Also, while I've had very little chance to test this, when not in a cutscene, the only times it's frozen are during voice-overs... but that could just be coincidental since I haven't gotten past the early part where there's constant talking.

Camann

I think if when I got home this morning at 1am and put in my copy and it froze my 360 over...and over. My head probably would have exploded.

parad0x360

I have a 60gig and the game runs fine for me, I wonder how really widespread the problem is. I would have been upset if I stood in that gamespot line last night for nothing.. by the way the game is awesome

D_Imperial115

Well its still fairly early for them to just hack together a fix. Its only been one night.

Altima NEO

oh no. i hope i have none of these after work when i sit down and turn my 360 on.

octoSink

"If only more support folks were as empathetic and genuinely concerned about the problems their customers are going through."

honestly, there are a lot of support people who are empathetic and genuinely concerned, but when you deal with people who don't know the difference between a modem and a stapler, and people who would rather scream at you rather than get help fixing the problem, a level of cynicism enters into it. Granted, there are bad ones out there too, ones who don't want to help, or are way too stupid to be doing the job.

I've been doing phone tech support for 3 years now for several different companies (internet and cable TV) and seen them all, customers and agents... but remember, for every good customer, there's about a hundred bad ones.

kathartik

Hmmm the only problem I've had was that the contrast ratio was so damn low when I first started that I couldn't even do the first mission. That or my TV blows :P

tshack

Um, can you skip the introductory cut-scene that's causing the problem?

NYC Armor Guy

@ara: Did the PS2 SKUs have multiple HDDs each made by a few differnt companies? Did the PS2 use a HDD for installs and caching? Oh, I mean, other than that one FF game that it came with?

Didn't think so.

@Camann: If I were you I would conduct an experiment. (I know you shouldn't have to and that R* needs to fix this, but instead of waiting I would try this.) Try changing your HDD. You can get a 250gb laptop drive for like $99 or a smaller one even cheaper. If the problem is what I think it is, it may fix the problem. If not you can always take the drive back or keep it. Hell, it never hurts to have more space, right?

Mr.SithNinja

I feel so sorry for the support guys over at rockstar,they must be getting the shit bashed out of em by angry gansta's tryin to play their game yo.I dont think this problem is too widespread though cause i've been monitoring the gamespot forums all day ( wont get my copy till tommorow) and there hasnt been one mention of a problem.

vig0r

mine crashed once now :(

Graywing

I have a 120gb 360, with 96gb free space, not problems for me last night.

And I guess this means my PS3 would be fine too since it's a 80gb model, eh?

PeterBeck

i myself have a launch console and have experienced no lock-ups during my 3-4 hr session last night. midnight launch ftw!

kw4k

For me, the question isn't about how long it will take them to fix it (as i don't have a PS3 or 360 :) )but whether they will release the fixes as downloads or replace the DVD/Bluray discs? What about if i buy a copy at christmas, will i have to connect to the internet to be able to play it?
As a console game, i don't think it should require that.

Also, this issue (and certain other recent ones) just highlights the disadvantages to having multiple SKUs in a product's lifecycle that use many different components from different manufacturers - even within the same SKU....

I hope that MS and Sony learn their mistakes for the next generation because this gen is increasinly looking like one f*ck-up after another....

Duoae

No freezing yet... hopefully never. I remember San Andreas was a freezeathon.

Anyone else have a problem connecting to multiplayer on PS3?

will52

Hmmm. i've had problems with my 60GB PS3 freezing on other games, so I'll wait a few extra days to pick this up.

That and I'm broke anyway.

Hiroken

@Buddy_DoQ:

You do realize that there were around 6 or 7 fat PS2 "SKU's" right? This isn't the problem.

SnakeCL

Where is your 10/10 now, GTA4?!?!?! ;)

I hope they're able to fix this issue quickly. For the sake of those poor Rockstar Support workers. And also the disappointed gamers.

Crawl to China

The 360's problem can probably be fixed by clearing the cache..

bluesquareapple

I got my game right here at my computer work desk.. Hopefully it's not a bad version or don't get the bad luck!!

preskewl

The worse thing about this is there's a chance the support guy will get into trouble for talking to the media. Sure, he's not to know he's talking to a journalist but that won't really matter to anyone trying to contain this.

I'm taking my office PS3 home tonight just in case my 60GB is one of the tricky ones - anyone know if it's purely launch machines? Mine was bought about seven months after the release?

adgeman

Uh oh. I have a 60 GB PS3 and have yet to play my copy.

M

Does anyone remember a time when games all worked *out of the box*? Where we didn't require publishers to digitally come to our house and tweak things? When a game was made and shipped out it was DONE. Finished. Debugged. Where all our problems could be solved by blowing on the game? When games didn't require more than one person, or a constant internet connection just to play and enjoy? When your console would still work twelve years after you bought it instead of going through 4 of them in a year because something beyond your control inside the console just decided to stop working?

Yeah....those were good times...

PathRifter

@Mr.SithNinja: Interesting idea, but I'm not buying a new hard drive to figure it out. Not right now at least.

@NYC Armor Guy: Hah, no. I mean, you can skip it, but it's not the one cutscene that's a problem (at least for me)... all of them I've gotten to will freeze if not skipped. (Granted, that's really only the intro and one more, as the game freezes during gameplay otherwise anyway ;_;)

@Graywing: I wouldn't worry too much. I've been reading around and it seems non-launch systems do rarely freeze during gameplay. If you've been playing for a few hours and this is the first it's happened, it's probably just a small hiccup which won't be gamebreaking.

Camann

After just finishing an 8 hour shift at Gamestop, I just thought I would mention that only one PS3 owner came in today to get a working game. We had a midnight release with at least 100 people there so 1 out of a hundred people isn't bad.

Satis24

sorry, but i just need somewhere to vent

Red ring of death when I turned on my 360 to put in GTA!!! Better yet, I register my console to find it is out of warranty! Great!

Simsymptoms

I had a bit of a freeze, right after install. The game got to 100%, status bar disappeared, and it sat there for ~ 5 minutes displaying the install screens still w/o a progress bar. Don't think that quite counts as freezing, but was a bit odd. Waited it out and it was fine..

worrpyro

@Camann: Well, the freezing didnt trouble me at all (running great now).

But the loud cracking sound followed by the smell of burned plastic that had me worried :P

Ow btw, my PS3 froze on the first sight of virtual boobies in the first dating cutscene.. must've been a shock to my system :P

Graywing

@Mr.SithNinja: I can pretty much guarantee that different HDD manufacturers are not an issue. All those drives are 2.5" 5400rpm discs, only if one is broken should it have such a different performance that it could stand out enough to crash a game. For example in PC's I can't think of ever hearing of some HDD manufacturer/batch causing problems, unless the HDD's break that is, that happens a lot. Unless their code is so bad that it crashes if seek times are not within some tiny window, HDD's do get slower when they fill up, data fragmentation, physical distance from center, etc. But if that's the case R* can pretty much shoot themselves, and the support already told that formatting the drive doesn't fix the problem.

ara

@SnakeCL: This is true, but the PS2 SKU's didn't diverge as much as this generation of consoles did even at launch. For instance, there wasn't a PS2 without hardware for PS1 B/C, and it took a while before they changed CPU designs. A PS2 is a PS2 is a PS2. You can't say the same for this generation of consoles. Elites, 80gigs, 20gigs, Arcades, some have more ports, some have different drives, where does the madness end, and is anyone keeping up when there's a game to make?

Makes me wonder if there's some tiny-tiny minor feature one SKU has or lacks that is creating these issues. Certainly this didn't appear during their in-house testing, or they'd have known about it before launch.

Buddy_DoQ

I have noticed that out of 135 comments so far, I count only ONE person who claims this has happened to them. There might be two, maybe I missed someone, but I think this is a strong indicator that the problem doesn't even exist. All it takes is for one blog out there to post a story about it and suddenly 1000 people call R* for a comment and *BAM* everyone thinks it's real.

/hope I don't eat my words when I pick up my copy after work today... ;)

MasterYong

mine sorta hung when my XBL conn was bouncing, but it came back after a minute.
I bet it has to do with the online element.

Chapel

I don't think the problem is that widespread. I just think that the few people it is happening to are reporting it to game sites. 10 people might seem a lot, but not when we're talking millions of people playing the game.

Orionsaint

I don't the problem is that widespread. I just think that the few people it is happening to are reporting it to game sights. 10 people might seem a lot, but not when we're talking millions of people playing the game.

Orionsaint

Too bad everyone is reporting this with sensationalist headlines.

It clearly isn't affecting all 60gb PS3s. So that should be made clear. Even bigger it seems to be affecting a very small % of people. Riding the wave of the huge game isn't working isn't really fair.

Every place I've read about this story it comes across that the game is just flat broken.

rochec

Played for 3 hours on my 60GB PS3 last night (or should I say this morning?). Didn't see a single problem whatsoever. Ran rock solid.

Yadda, yadda, yadda, I'm really tired today.

madgunde

@Simsymptoms: call MS, they should still swap it for ya

kidko

@Graywing: I hope that second part's not true 0_o

This freezing is really random. I tried again and was able to make it though a mission cutscene without freezing, played some more, made it through a few more cutscene-less missions only to have it freeze during a car chase. Man I want a patch to come out... this is sad.

On the upside, I found that ejecting the disk and putting it back in after a freeze causes a soft-reboot of sorts so I don't have to turn the PS3 off and back on to try again.

Camann

@Yamen: LOL!! but seriously, if i pick up this game and it freezes i may go ape shit and freeze all over town.

nicopolitan

My 360 version is working great. No problems.

necrotoxin

Own the 360 version. Popped it in and got the RROD, but that had just started happening already with another game. Finally got it to boot up and the game froze during the intro. After doing the hokey pokey a few more times, I managed to skip the intro and then was able to play with no issue.

dennisj

Many people seem to think his bosses should be so proud of him. If you were ever in customer support, you would know that his behavior was "unprofessional" and would probably get him reprimanded. Anything beyond "Thank you for your call. We will look into this issue," is strictly forbidden. Causing the customer to panic by giving them too much information is dangerous for the company.
And heartfelt apologies? They imply that the company was at fault, when every company will tell you: the customer is always at fault. Apologies must be of the most sterile variety, so that even the customer knows you are just giving lip service. The company does not make mistakes.

Face it: Customer service is terrible because companies want it that way.

Comatose Turtle

@Koztah:

i completely agree.

i used to work customer service and the amount of reps who didn't care was almost nil. the problem was in the screaming, mentally deficient masses who think that making the most noise will speed up the process.

hint: it doesn't.

Jae

Gotta give Rockstar credit for how they are handling this so far (you know, by talking about it publicly).

I gave Rockstar a chance to fix "Bully: SE" for the 360 -- and I haven't had a single problem with that title since the patch, so...

(I still haven't played "Halo 3" because I have a "launch" copy, and Bungie/MS still haven't fixed (in fact, they've barely acknowledged) the occassional cannot-read-disc issue that bricks some 360s...)

Plankton420

Confirmed.

My game just froze on my on my 40gig PS3 .... :\

Not during the cut scene...but it froze after changing pants, of all things.

This sucks.

Woodwater

It's absolutely happening. It's happening to me. Freezing right after the first cut scene, every single time. And I purchased a brand new 360 Arcade along with the game because my original system red ringed two days ago.

Who am I supposed to call to yell at, because apparently I can't exchange it today as every single Gamestop in NYC is sold out? So angry right now.

Megalowho

@Koztah: i used to do adsl tech support.

you, sir, are bang on the money.

bialia

The game is freezing on any PS3. I have an 80 gig and in the middle of missions it has frozen twice. Never happened before on any game.

ChewyChew

This being the reason why Rockstar Games is by far my favorite company of all time, as a game developer and producer of games.

Go Team Venture

Hoe can we REALLY be sure this is a big problem, and not just a storm in a teacup? Obviously millions of people will be playing this game, and there WILL be problems. It does look like the VAST majority of people have no issues at all.

Stormbringer

I am one of the unlucky ones, I reformatted my hard drive before reading this, so ill tell you how it works. Uncharted had the EXACT same problem for me.

Ahsayuni

Well, I've played 9 hours or so on a repaired 360 and not encountered anything, but I haven't tried multiplayer at all (Silver account) and have booted the opening sequence 3 times ok.

Just in general, it's running great so far - no annoying pop-in, great framerate, brilliant game.

LongDarkBlues

40GB PS3 - Half way through a mission my car hits a big bump. Freezes in mid-air and how I can just hear the street sounds in the background. Everything on screen is frozen. Controller is unresponsive.

navvywavvy

@Megalowho:
@Woodwater:
Welcome to the world of PC gaming. But worse.

Your trapped because you don't have access to the workings of your gaming machine. I think the console makers became too ambitious this gen. Or maybe it's the devs forcing these issues.

homernoy

60gb ps3 owner, hard drive maybe 75% full, no problems experienced.

maxx1223

@ajlafontaine:

My Elite also froze after playing the multiplayer tutorial. I rebooted and tried to load the game and the screen went black. I rebooted a couple more times with the same results. Then rebooted and the splash screen and the dashboard screen had tons of blue horizontal lines about a pixel thick. Tried to load an arcade game and the screen went black. The vid card in my Elite is bad. I think well OK, I have a premium in the next room. Swap it out and put my Elite hd and my profile memory card on my premium so I will have all my saves from four hours of play last night. Load GTA IV, and the screen goes black. I'm thinking maybe corrupt game save, so I put my premium hd back on and load a different profile... still black. Two 360's, neither will play GTA IV and one vid card died trying.

robinandtami

My screen during a cut scene about 12 hours(not consecutive) into the game, i restarted my system and got through the cut scene fine and the game froze shortly after the scene. Restarted.

Been playing an hour since then and have had no problems.

SofaKingHI

My screen went black during the first cutscene and stayed black. Had to exit to dashboard to fix it.

deepee

To other companies, particularly GAMETAP: See, this is how you do support. How much does it cost to actually sound bummed out and admit you're not perfect? NOTHING! And the good will you get is worth a ton.

Unlike GameTap who, if you have a problem, effectively tell you to fuck off and die. Upgraded to Vista? Die. Upgraded to a 64 bit OS? Oh, super duper die you idiot. I even had their support tell me at one point that my problems with their client on a nice 32 bit XP install (the only OS they ever have any plans of ever supporting in any way for the infinite future according to their support goons) was because I used an LCD TV as my monitor. "External devices can cause conflicts" they kept parroting, trying to get rid of me when the problem was 115% with their client doing some jiggery pokery in the background creating fake devices in device manager and then destroying them over and over (disabling the mystery device makes gametap work, a solution I had to find since they refused to help me)...

See GameTap and other companies? You give shit support, you get BAD WILL.

otakucode

Just take a look at the PS forums.. it's freezing many 60GB PS3s. One thing Rock Star *is* doing about it is having youtube delete videos showing the problem, claiming copyright??!!!

fragmaster

60GB owner too, no problems so far.

Wiliam Hook

40gb PS3 and it has locked twice within the first hour of playing. Then again, it locked up both times whenever I was flying around in a helicopter.

/just playing around with the cheats

MIGGO

We've had buggy console game releases before. You're lucky because this generation allows the publishers to release patches!

Anyone remember when console manufacturers wouldn't allow ANYONE to release games with ANY bugs in them? We had a whole generation of releases that were absolutely perfect! Then the PS2 came along and "reputable" software house Team17 released "Worms 3D". Crash bang wallop, what a picture. I don't think that game was ever fixed.

The line seems to be that games are now so complicated, we have to expect problems with them. We must also put up with delays while the developers work to fix those problems.

Why is this acceptable? How long should we wait for these patches and why should we nod and bow gratefully when they finally arrive and allow the game to work as it should have done all those weeks/months/years ago when we bought it?

Fistynuts

Glad I wasn't effected, it works great on my 60GB model. *whew*

amponymouse

mine freeze up 2times 2day....
argghhhhhhhh

rage_krisnha

Add me to the List
Ps3 40 GB

heisert

@HurricaneDave:

umm microsoft support is superb, i just got off the phone to repair my rrod and the guy was awesome and very funny.

llamaman13

what happened to games? why is this now par for the course?

thaKingRocka

Well, I have it for both systems...

(I bought the 360, and Gamefly'd the PS3)

Xbox I've had no problems.

My PS3 is a 60gb model, but not a launch console.

The PS3 did freeze up, not during the cutscene, but during the first mission. What I did was just do a hard reset and it's been fine so far.

I'm going to stick with the 360 version, but I'm holding on and playing the PS3 version as I'm taking my PS3 to Phoenix to show my parents Blu-Ray on their new 53" Sony LCD, and I'll want something decent to play...

**Interesting fun fact b/w both versions:

When watching TV the PS3 has an extra close up camera angle of the Television that the 360 does not..

Pay_Me_Or_Pay_Me_No_Attention

waiting for the DS release.

dss902

To the guy who said "We've only heard a few people say this..." Well, most people didn't stay up until Midnight to get the game and are playing it now for the first time.

Happened to me during the dating mission when I got into the car after bowling. Launch 60gig PS3.

Gannoc

I'm getting freezes on the 360. Brand new Elite just picked up last month, connected via HDMI @ 1080P. The game freezes at different places. The first freeze was as I was driving Niko back from the poker game, and the second was after buying some clothes. This sucks.

First Bully, now GTA4.

D00mM4r1n3

A friend of mine owns a Launch 60g and a post-launch 20g. He has upgraded the HD in the 20g to 120g, and saved the 20g drive for emergencies.

His CE version of GTA4 has this game breaking bug on the launch 60g PS3. It plays just fine on his 120g one (former 20g).

He is now in the process of putting his 20g drive into his 60g unit, and going to test it that way. If it works, we'll have at least a handle on what may be going on.

This is very important to me, as I too have a 60g PS3, and will have my GTA4 CE copy tomorrow via Amazon/UPS. If a different HD actually enables the thing to work, I'm not going to complain about having a reason to upgrade my PS3 HD, as I can use the space for "stuff".

I'll do this like live-blogging....

*UPDATE* - HD Swap is completed, firmware upgrade going on as I type this.

*UPDATE* - Installing game now.

*UPDATE* - He's playing through now, results momentarily...

*UPDATE* - I said momentarily, but he's obviously doing /something/ in game, as he's not chatting about it at the moment.....

*UPDATE* - Success! Well, this was loaded from the save-game of his working 20g (120g) PS3. So, he's nuked it, reinstalling from scratch, and going to play though the beginning with a "new fresh" game, and see if that is it.

*UPDATE* - Total Success. With clean install, clean fresh new game. Past the game bug. This is HD related for the PS3. The launch model of the 60g PS3 hard-drive is the issue.

My friend tells me he may try to put the 60g drive into his working 20g (now 120g unit) reformat and try again. But, that isn't going to be tonight.

So,