Rockstar's Dan Houser has confessed to Variety that he's "not sure" if Grand Theft Auto IV's DLC will be made available this year and I don't think he's the only one who has doubts. In fact, it looks like Microsoft is the only entity that believes we'll see it this year anymore.

"It’s going well. But we don’t know a date," admitted Houser after voicing his lack of certainty on the DLC releasing in 2008. "We hope to be announcing that in the next few weeks. We’re still figuring out a few things. We’re more focused on quality than dates, always have been. But the development is going really good. It’s shaping up to be something we’re very proud of. That was our goal.

"We want to give people a rough idea so their expectations are roughly in line. We don’t want them to imagine it’s this enormous thing that it can never be. Doing a big digital launch is something we’ve never done before. It’s virgin territory, but at the same time, we feel very exposed because there’s no case history. No one ever came out with major DLC for a major game like this before."

It's almost safe to say by now that GTA IV is not getting downloadable content before 2009, despite Microsoft's claims to the contrary. With Grand Theft Auto IV having had its spotlight months ago, one wonders how large the excitement will be for this  episodic chicanery. However, it's encouraging to see a company committed to making quality new content rather than merely shipping something that could and should have already been on the disc.  

[Via VG247]