In an interview with Times Online, GTA IV producer Leslie Benzies has confirmed that the budget invested in the new Rockstar’s title was approximately $100 million. Benzies said that a team of 1,000 people was involved in the creation of the game in the past three and a half years.

During this period Benzies and other key members of the team have been working 12-hour days. This came as a surprise because previous budget estimates were at most half that sum, somewhere around $45 million. It appears that the enormous budget, which makes it the most expensive video game ever created by man, did not guarantee a bug-free launch.

Due to its complexity, it turned out that the game still has issues even after being released to the public. Rockstar is working around the clock to fix reported crash or freeze issues, mostly on Playstation 3s.

Meanwhile, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) wants more severe restrictions on the game’s rating, in order to prevent in-game behavior to transpose into real life for reckless kids. MADD warned about the thousands of victims that die each year in drunk driving accidents, saying the game's developer shouldn’t have introduced the module that allows players to drive while drunk, saying “drunk driving is not a game and it is not a joke. Drunk driving is a choice, a violent crime and it is also 100 percent preventable.”

According to ChartTrack, the official UK gaming industry monitor, GTA IV is the fastest selling game ever in a 24 hour period. In its first day of availability, Rockstar’s GTA IV sold 609,000 units, surpassing the previous record held by none other than GTA: San Andreas. Back in 2004, GTA: San Andreas sold 501,000 copies in its first day.

ChartTrack also revealed that 335,000 copies were sold on Microsoft’s Xbox 360. Halo 3, released last year in September exclusively in Xbox 360, sold 266,000 units in its first day.

Sony’s PS3 scored its own record, because GTA IV sold 274,000 copies on PS3, outselling the previous record holder, Gran Turismo 5: Prologue, which sold 80,000 units in its first day. ChartTrack will release the figures for the whole week next Tuesday. Analysts forecasted that more than six million copies of the game will be bought worldwide during the first week of sale.