The Microsoft – Sony battle is on, as gamers all over the world swarm to pre-order Grand Theft Auto IV, a franchise that is said to make history within its first weeks of availability. Statistics are none alike, as the PS3 version may lead in Australia or U.K. websites, but not on Amazon.com.

Grand Theft Auto IV has stimulated a tremendous interest all over the world, ranking both versions among the best sold titles, behind Nintendo’s Wii Fit or Mario Kart Wii – this is the case of Amazon.com, where the Xbox version ranked no. 4, while the PS3 version ranked sixth.

On the other hand, U.K. retailer Asda announced that its pre-orders of the PS3 version have outstripped the Xbox 360 demand: “Both titles have generated great interest on the Asda website, with strong pre-orders, and the PS3 version is selling three times that of 360, which is surprising and not in line with what we’d expect,” Asda’s head of games Duncan Cross told MCV.

Although many expect the PS3 sales to outrun the Xbox 360, HMV’s Tim Ellis told the same source: “Demand for both formats is high, but our 1,000 Xbox points offer generated a huge amount of interest.”

However, the dice haven’t been thrown yet. In Australia for example, the PS3 version pre-orders went ahead of the Xbox 360 ones, but figures could change at any point.

Canada has a special offer for GTA IV fans: All Best Buy retail shops that will begin selling the game as of next week will offer the first 100 people in each location (Bay and Dundas – Toronto, Burnaby – BC, Langley – BC, Edmonton South – AB, Heartland, Mississauga – ON) the chance to win one of the 5 Limited Edition Grand Theft Auto IV Xbox 360 consoles.

The Grand Theft Auto IV mania has begun, going as far as appearing on various torrent sites. The gaming site Kotaku revealed that the Xbox 360 pirated version of the game has already appeared in 6.32 GB version. The investigation on how this happened continues.

Grand Theft Auto IV will be officially released on April 29, after a delay from the original date, which was supposed to be 16 October, 2007. The Xbox version will offer extra content (downloadable episodes that are said to add up to 10 hours of game), thanks to a deal Microsoft managed to close with Rockstar. The two episodes will become available as of August 2008.