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Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter is predicting that Rockstar Games, developers of the mega-successful Grand Theft Auto series, will split from their publisher, Take-Two Games, once their contract is up in February 2009.  This speculation comes hot on the heels of the new GTA IV trailer which is receiving more views than those adorable captioned kitty cat pages.  Considering EA’s recent $850 million acquisition of Pandemic and BioWare, it certainly would make sense for the creators of three of the top twenty selling games of all time to test the waters.  

While there has been no confirmation from Rockstar or Take Two, we do know that the contract indeed expires in early 2009 and that analyst Pachter usually has his finger pretty squarely on the industry’s pulse (though in 2006 he did insinuate that online console gaming would never take off, stating “At the end of the day, we don't play games for social interaction." and that Microsoft's Xbox Live concept is "absolutely flawed”).  Bungie, developers of the Halo series, recently made a similar announcement about their relationship with Microsoft, stating that they want the corporate independence to pursue other projects like, strangely enough, getting back to their roots as a developer for Mac games. (Seriously?!?!?)  While Bungie won’t be looking to sell themselves off to the highest bidder, it will be interesting to see if Rockstar does.

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