Rumors have been long-standing that Microsoft was trying to buy Rockstar. We here at Rated-M think that has finally happened. Anyone who was watching G4TV's coverage of E3 2006 saw Peter Moore show off his nice GTA tattoo at the press conference. He had mentioned that GTA would launch on the 360 first with exclusive episodic content.

The very next day, Peter Moore sat down for an interview to announce that just minutes prior to the interview, he had signed a deal of exclusivity with Rockstar so that GTA would be and I quote "ONLY ON 360". When asked how he managed to steal such a big title away from Sony, he replied that Rockstar knew what they were doing, they were "good businessmen".

So after that, there has been no further mention of it, and all 3 companies involved have declined comment. Recently, Take-Two, current known owners of Rockstar, spoke of their next-gen line-up, but Rockstar was strangely not mentioned once. Take-Two has had some money problems, despite having strong titles for PS2 and the XBOX systems. The loss of the NFL license to EA, the Hot Coffee fiasco with GTA, and the fire at their New York offices contributed to this.

Speculation is that Take-Two sold Rockstar to MS to save themselves from their money issues. MS gets GTA, Take-Two is free of the negative publicity and controversy. I wouldn't be surprised if we see an official announcment real soon.