According to USA Today the Xbox 360 exclusive DownLoadable Content for GTA IV is due for download on February 17th 2009. It will be called 'The Lost and Damned'.

This clarifies Take-Two's recent comment that the DLC "may move into the second quarter". It also makes Rockstar founder Sam Houser's November 10th admission that his company wasn't sure when the DLC was coming out a little less believable - but 10 days is a long time in game development...

Anyway, the report states that Niko Bellic will play a smaller part in the DLC, which will revolve around Johnny Klebitz, a member of Liberty City biker gang The Lost.

Says Dan Houser, "Johnny is a very different character than Niko, with a very different background.

"I can't go into too much detail on the story, because we try not to give away too much plot before the game is released. But I can say that the story will show you a different side of Liberty City."

"The story is not directly impacted by decisions you took in the main game", adding that "tons of details and mysteries from the main story get explained, so it will add a lot of colour to the main story."

SPOnG, for its part, is happy to see Bellic fade into backstory.

^{USA Today}