Rockstar Games has released screen shots of the second episode of Grand Theft Auto IV, the next evolution in its wildly popular franchise. The new expansion download is dubbed "The Ballad of Gay Tony." Check out the screen shot above. You can already tell, at least graphically, that The Ballad of Gay Tony is going to be explosive.
So, who's "Gay" Tony?
Tony Prince aka "Gay Tony" is a legendary nightclub entrepreneur in Liberty City, the main setting of Grand Theft Auto IV. Liberty City is dubbed the "Capital of Capitalism" full of "guns, glitz, and grime." The main character, however, is Luis Lopez, a hoodlum and Gay Tony's assistant. In typical Grand Theft Auto fashion, Lopez must navigate his way through an underground world riddled with corruption and constant tests of loyalty.
Is the limit of Gay Tony's sexuality only in the title?
Rockstar is hush on the actual gay undertones in the pack, leaving gay gamers to speculate on how far into Liberty City's nightlife GTA will go and what types of situations Luis and Gay Tony will find themselves in.
Gamers are willing to wait until the October 29th release to find out, but many agree that it's time for a more diverse library of LGBT characters in the gaming world.
Advocate.com contributor Bryan Ochalla writes "that video games haven’t yet had their Birdcage moment" noting that the "few LGBT characters and story lines that find their way into today’s titles tend to showcase stereotypes that haven’t been big-screen staples for a few decades."
Yet, Ochalla remains optimistic in his article, Are Video Games Getting Gayer?. "The medium should make even more strides this fall when Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony is released for the Xbox 360," Ochalla says.
How popular will Gay Tony be?
Twenty-four hours into the release of Gay Tony's predecessor Grand Theft Auto IV: Lost & Damned back in February, Microsoft announced that the expansion pack broke the record for maximum sales in one day. The underground epic is one of the most popular games on the market. Microsoft never released the actual number of downloads, but boasted that Lost & Damned had "eclipsed first-day revenue for all previous downloadable content on Xbox Live."
Grand Theft Auto IV itself has sold more than 5.2 million copies in the US alone. The new expansion download, GTA IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony, is expected to be just as, if not more, popular.
Is is time for a gay game expansion?
What do you think? Is it time for the gaming industry to feature more gay main characters and plot lines?
Image: Screen shot from GTA IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony. © Rockstar Games
I’m currently attending DeVry for a B.S. degree major in Game and Simulation Programming. I am also gay. Honestly when I first saw the trailer for the game, I thought “Hey, that’s pretty cool.” Who knows how much gay content is in the game but I think regardless, people who’d normally avoid something like this because of the subject matter will end up playing this. I think it’s a good hurdle to pass. I can’t wait until I get deeper into my degree and I can start forming a team to develop some kind of indie game… and I intend it to have some gay subject matter!
Hopefully others can see it in a positive light and enjoy it.