Microsoft braces for "GTA IV" crush on Xbox Live

The latest installment of "Grand Theft Auto" is gonna be huge—so huge, in fact, that Microsoft is shoring up Xbox Live in hopes of avoiding another outage like the one we endured during the holidays.

The general manager of Live Services Operations, the division responsible for Xbox online gameplay, told Kotaku that engineers are "going the extra mile with Grand Theft Auto IV," which is expected to snap videogame sales records like dry twigs this week.

Microsoft has effectively "doubled our capacity for concurrent users over the last two months" by adding "more server hardware," said Live General Manager David Ingalls in the Kotaku story, adding that Live staffers will be working overtime this week to make sure the GTA:IV launch goes smoothly.

Meanwhile, since Sony doesn't have an equivalent to Xbox Live, GTA developer Rockstar will be handling the online servers for PlayStation 3 gamers, according to Kotaku.

Microsoft issued an apology and handed out free Xbox Live Arcade games to ticked off gamers after Live servers, slammed by a crush of new users, slowed to a crawl in December and early January.

With Grand Theft Auto IV expected to sell about nine million copies this week alone—and with the seamless multiplayer sounding like such a cool part of the experience—it's good to hear that Live engineers are taking the initiative and gearing up for the onslaught in advance.

Now let's just hope it works.

Related:
Xbox Live Preps for GTA IV Server Riot [Kotaku]