Kotaku
Today Rockstar announced a new website called the Rockstar Social Club. Essentially a high tech leaderboard, the first supported game will be (drum roll) Grand Theft Auto IV (surprise!).
Compatible with Xbox LIVE and PSN, players can register starting April 15th to track all sorts of neat stuff they do in GTA IV when it's released April 29th. In addition to ranking players by time to single player completion, tracking the first to complete 100% of the game and singling out the best in a Hall of Fame, something called the LCPD Police Blotter will be a virtual map listing every single-player crime committed in Liberty City, ever. Oh, and additional lists will be aggregated of various "physical milestones" like miles walked and bullets fired.
For the full details, hit the jump for the press release.
On April 29th Rockstar Games will release the most anticipated game of 2008, Grand Theft Auto IV. In addition to the game, the company is launching the Rockstar Social Club, a new website that will extend your experience of Grand Theft Auto IV and all future Rockstar Games titles.The Rockstar Social Club is more than just a standard gaming site. It features all of the statistical leaderboards that gamers have come to expect, and combines them with performance-based competitions and awards.
Registration for the Rockstar Social Club begins on April 15th and anyone can sign up with their Xbox Gamertag and/or a PlayStation Network ID.
GTA IV, the first game featured on the Rockstar Social Club, has exciting features beyond multiplayer leaderboards, including:
* LCPD Police Blotter — A virtual map and tracker of single-player criminal activity logged in Liberty City from the aggregated data of millions of connected players - showing the most dangerous areas of town, most commonly used weapons and more.
* The Story Gang — This special single-player leaderboard recognizes players who complete Niko Bellic's main story arc of Grand Theft Auto IV - The leaderboard ranks players according to the total amount of playing time it's taken to complete the story, as well as a historical rank by who has completed it first. Members of this club will receive special online widgets and merit badges marking all of their in-game accomplishments.
* The 100% Club — Watch to see who will be the first to complete 100% of the game. The first ten people to be identified on the Social Club as reaching 100% will be sent an ultra-rare commemorative 'key to the city' to mark their accomplishment. In the future, the 100% Club will then carry a historical leaderboard showing rankings of who has completed 100% of a game in the shortest span of playing hours.
* The Hall of Fame — This area will dynamically recognize those singularly elite players who have reached the top of the hill on various statistical leaderboards, and will also contain a personal awards display of special in-game landmarks and successes in Social Club competitions.
* The Liberty City Marathon — A ranking of special physical milestones achieved in the game - from the amount of miles walked, driven, or swam - to the number of bullets fired and stunt-jumps jumped. There will be additional special marathon-based competitions in the future from this area as well.
The Rockstar Social Club doesn't stop there. With special competitions, leaderboards and challenges rolling out regularly in the weeks and months following the game's release, this is just the beginning of an on-going Liberty City experience and is a small taste of what's to come from Rockstar Games for GTAIV and beyond...
Comments
Thats pretty cool. A shame they didn't do it with the bully rereleases
That's what i'm talking about!
I love checking stats and comparing with friends.
The police blotter thing sounds kind of cool.
Wasnt there supposed to be a trailer shown today?
that's sounds pretty great. Anticipation kicked up a notch once again :)
I'm assuming the key to the city lets you get by any locked door? or is it just a commemorative trophy?
@excel_excel: Yeah would have worked well with Bully... should make for some interesting reading when its up and fully running.
Now I wonder who's gonna be the first person to cheat their way to 100% completion just to be #1 in the world
NICE!, but yes weres the new trailer
uhm, yeah.
@MasterOfPastures: Yeah you can watch the video here.
gta4 preview
Another cherry on the sundae. I love you Rockstar.
@Azrial: hehehe knowing Rockstar they would have had a boys kissed rank list!
@mnTwins07: I got Rick Rolled. Damn you!
@mnTwins07: Wow. Just.....wow.
That sounds cool!
April 29th can't come soon enough...
I give it a week before the police blotter just shows a map completely covered with dots to the point where there is nothing viewable on the map and each dot you click on says 9999999999999999 for crimes committed.
I'm Lovin'It. Full stat tracking for GTAIV.
This is relevant to my interests...
@mnTwins07: Rickrolling is lame. [gawker.com]
Just like you.
In other news, the Socialclub looks promising.
@DaPress: agreed, and I'm ashamed of my actions.
@mnTwins07: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHa lol I actually stopped to watch that.
@MasterOfPastures: @lifeinthefridge:
Eurogamer has info on the new trailer says 10PM UK GMT... holds breath and waits!!
From a company point of view...
ROCKSTAR GAMES will in the end dominate.
This new addition is an amazing addition twords the GTA:IV world.
Imagine you and your friend both playing in diffrent states, and oh suddenly you kill half of the people in aka queens and blow up gosh idk everything, well now your a "made man" the social club shall recognize poeple for thier brilliantly talendted ways of playing gta,
This might also be a smart way to track crazy kids...if you shoot up half a city block in gta and then at your real highschool well theremight be a trail therelol
@mnTwins07: I love that song!
This will be awesome.Im really liking the idea of highlighting the most dangerous parts of the city and things like that.Cant wait for GTA 4....APRIL HURRY UP!
Can someone tell me why i'm still paying for XBOX live when leader boards and stat tracking is free via the games personal servers? Thank god for the alternatives and thank you PS3 and perhaps Wii. 360, fix your skirt.
Awesome!
The pure marketing "BRASS ONES" on rockstargames is just brilliant.
@iNime: Well don't thank the Wii yet...its online is bad...BAD NINTENDO, BAD...no supper for you
@DaPress:
Rickrolling might be lame, but I think he was doing it more for the irony, or at least referencing the origins of the fad. You did read the article you linked, right?
I like this. But better tie-in with the PSN/Live might be nice.
See..This is what I'm talking about. GTA4 wasn't really on my radar,but now with some community activity like this.I will be picking up the game for sure.
That's awesome. It's like uber-achievements.
First 10 people to get 100%. I foresee work productivity decreasing rapidly.
@Northernsky: Oh, I'm well aware of how Rickrolling started. That doesn't make it any less lame.
I think what's really cool about this is that it's being done cross-platform, since it'll link PSN and Live on a third-party site (the Social Club). It just goes to show (if it works, of course) that we *can* all play together.
Very cool
They can do so much with the police blotter. If there are high amounts of murders in an area from a single player they can label him as a serial killer and other players have to figure who he is. They would have to add it to the multiplayer modes, but it can always be DLC.
@mnTwins07: I just got RickRolled.
I hope something similar will be tracked in-game, I'd hate if it only counted while you were connected to Live.
This is so fucking awesome that words don't even do it justice.
This is cool. I'll be able to compare my progress on the PS3 version with my friends' progress on the 360. Now if only they had some sort of movie upload thing like Halo 3.
@mnTwins07: Dont be lame. Bad page as well. The banner "You got rick rolled" loads before the video does, so I manged to get out there. If you're gonna do it , do it right.
im pretty stoked about this for sure... even though i could play this game 24/7 and never top any of the lists, i bet.
@Malidictus: fantastic idea, Imagine postioning the camera and being able to maniuplate it so its like a news chase! A shame it probably won't be in the game but man fantastic idea
WOW!! this is going to be brilliant! GTA4 just seem to exceed my expecttations every day!
erm, so out of the millions of people that will buy GTA4, 10 of them are going to get prizes, and what of the rest of us? the ones with jobs, who don't rely ont heir parents for financial support, who actually spend most of their time doing things other than gaming? hmm? what of us, where are our prizes?
This is sweet as hell, but I also don't agree with some of the achievements.
The first 10 people to get 100% get 'a key to the city'? C'mon. I don't want to have to rush through the game like I'm on some ADHD frenzy just to get an achievement. I'm going to take my sweet time playing this game. Hell, when GTA III came out, I played that for over a year straight.
Hopefully there will be many more achievements that don't have to be rushed. There's just no way I'm breezing through the story and getting 100% that quickly. That'd be an insult to this wonderful game and the time that was spent creating it.
@mnTwins07: curses.... that was the first Ive fallen for that... I cant believe Ive been rickrolled.....
@excel_excel: While positioning it like that probably won't work, it'd be pretty damn cool to have a whole mission shot as though it's from a news chopper chasing Niko while he's trying to ditch the cops. It'd be an overhead camera that lets you see a bit more of the map and it'd be hellafun.
Think of it as GTA's take on the COD4 death-from-above mission.
@Collapse The Control:
same here:D
Now I feel like buying a guide to be the first ten of the 100% club.