Grand Theft Auto 4: notes of dissent?

While we’re waiting for the official sales figures to stumble in – expected opening day total: a lot – there’s been one or two notes of dissent in the path of the otherwise all-conquering Grand Theft Auto 4.

According to some message boards and forums, there are reports of users who have bought the game, taken it home, and found that it is freezing up on them. From what we can make out, it’s primarily – but not exclusively – owners of the Playstation 3 who are having the most cause for complain here. There’s been no official word forthcoming on the matter yet, though.

Meanwhile, speculation is beginning to mount that the game – which, as we reported yesterday, is expected to have racked up the best part of half a billion dollars in sales by this time next week – will impact on the box office take of impending blockbusters. In the firing line is Iron Man, out this weekend, and much of its target audience could well be wrapped up on a journey around Liberty City, just at the point that Paramount would rather they be sitting in their local fleapit.

All the while, the perfect review scores keep coming in, and the copies keep flying off the shelves. Could this be the biggest videogame of all time, by the time the bean counters have finished their work? We wouldn’t lay too many bets against it…