Grand Theft Auto 4: Episode 1 release date in August 2008 on Xbox 360

Pre-order Grand Theft Auto 4 for Xbox 360At Microsoft’s Game Developers Conference 2008 keynote address, Grand Theft Auto 4: Episode 1, the first downloadable content for the game was given a release date sometime in August 2008.

Episode 1 is the first of two upcoming Xbox 360-exclusive Grand Theft Auto 4 game expansions that Microsoft paid $50 million for to obtain. Grand Theft Auto 4: Episode 2 was originally set to appear “later in the fiscal year 2008,” but might now end up being delayed into early 2009 (that’s a calendar year guess).

Microsoft VP* John Schappert also confirmed that more than a thousand games will have been released on the Xbox 360 by the end of 2008, and that Grand Theft Auto 4 will be one of the biggest when it’s released worldwide on April 29th, 2008.

* His VP title stands for Corporate Vice President of LIVE, Software and Services for the Interactive Entertainment Business, according to CVG.