HMV: GTA V will "inject huge excitement" into market

Entertainment retailer HMV has reacted with giddy delight to the news that Grand Theft Auto V is very much in the works.

The game was revealed yesterday, with a debut trailer due next Wednesday.

"Any new launch activity involving GTA is bound to be a fantastic development that would inject huge excitement into the games market for fans, retailers and media alike – as we’re already seeing,” HMV’s head of games Tim Ellis told MCV.

Having set the bar so very high with previous releases from the franchise, the developers do face the challenge of delivering another brilliant game that’s as good if not better than anything we’ve seen before, but given Rockstar’s outstanding track record I have no doubts they’ll achieve that – and we, for one, can’t wait to see what they come up with."

Of course, there is one presumption here – that Grand Theft Auto V will be a boxed retail product.

Obviously the chances are very much in favour of this. Indeed, it would be staggering should Rockstar decide to abandon traditional channels with this new release. It’s a guaranteed seller.

But a year ago who would have though that the console version of Crysis would skip retail? Or the new Burnout game? Or the HD Resident Evil Remakes and CCP’s ambitious FPS Dust 514?