G'day readers.

This article is the first of many mini-updates on when the long-awaited update to RockstarWatch will be launched. Over the past 12 months, I have been working on a large-scale update to RockstarWatch which will turn it into the site I always envisioned it. This has been an difficult task, and I've had to juggle both University and coding at the same time, however I feel its nearing completion, and I'm really excited to see how people find the change. For a long time we have been considered nothing more than a News-site, due to our lack of content; well that's about to change, in a BIG way.

Whats brought this on? Many things, really. The main reason is that our purpose has always been to inform fellow fans, and give them reliable news as it happens along with appropriate content. I feel we've done this relatively well, we're edging on one-thousand quality news posts, and that's thanks to the combined effort of the hard-working guys behind-the-scenes, Aj Collins and Aaron C. Without these guys, the site would be nothing more than a static page with nothing even mildly interested. They've been very understanding, allowing me to do my coding and course work whilst they cover the news and content on the current, as Aj would put it, half-usable, administration back-end.

Secondly, its also due to recent events which have seen us over-looked and replaced by start-up fan sites. For example, take our coverage of Red Dead Redemption; we've been covering this amazing game since before it was even announced (hell, we even owned the reddeadredemption.com domain before we handed it over to Rockstar), yet everywhere you look you find references to websites which have only just shown up in the final-laps of the games development. While we love seeing fellow fans dedicating their time to fan sites about fantastic Rockstar games, it disappoints us to be over-looked after all the work we've put into the website. In our view, it appears you have to be dedicated to one particular game to receive any actual appreciation. However, regardless of the issues we've had, I think I speak for all the staff when I say that we've enjoyed every minute of it so far.

EDIT: I would like to clarify that this article was not meant as a personal attack on Rockstar, it was a personal opinion which, due to misunderstandings, translated into something it larger than it should have become.

Now, for the moment I don't want to give to much away about the next version of RockstarWatch, but I will say this: expect a lot more user input. When we originally launched in 2007, we we're heavily community-based, and I am hoping to bring that back with this coming update. Prior to the launch, you will be able to register with us to test an beta version of the design, and I'll let you know more about that soon. As for a relaunch date, that's currently up-in-the-air; it depends entirely on how long it takes me to complete the final coding and design parts of the site.

Be sure to keep checking back for more news soon on how the update is coming along, and until then, be sure to enjoy Red Dead Redemption when its released next week.