Liberty City Stories PS2-bound by May, next GTA PSP "all new"

As part of its earnings report today, Take-Two Interactive made a rather surprising announcement. While announcing the roster of games for its 2006 fiscal year, which ends on October 31, 2006, the company revealed it is porting a PSP game to a "current-generation console."

It doesn't take a Wall Street game analyst to guess that the title is Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, the most popular PSP game to date. According to Take-Two, which owns GTA publisher Rockstar Games, the game will be released on a "current-generation console" during the company's second quarter, which ends on April 30, 2006.

However, since Take-Two did not specify which console the game would be coming to, it has opened up the floodgates of speculation. [UPDATE] However, the scuttlebutt was scuppered by comments by Take-Two CEO and president Paul Eibler during a post-earnings announcement conference call. In that call, he told analysts, "We are very pleased that we have been able to extend Liberty City Stories into the PS2 environment."

In other news, Take-Two also announced that the next PSP GTA, first revealed last year, would be an "all-new property." The company did not specify whether that means it will be a new adventure set in an old locale, like LCS was, or a completely original game and setting.