Brutal Gamer

GTA IV Banned After Copy-Cat Behaviour

past - by Chexd - August 4, 2008 - 17:47 UTC - Be first to Comment!

So the post-launch backlash begins. There was always going to be a time when Rockstar’s latest game was banned for one reason or another and this is case is no different.

So just where and why has this happened?

Grand Theft Auto IV has been pulled from shelves in Thailand following an issue from the distributor; New Era Interactive Media. This comes after an 18-year-old murdered a Taxi driver in order to “recreate a scene from the game”.

The killers excuse? According to Police reports “He wanted to find out if it was as easy in real life to rob a taxi as it was in the game”.

Now this is where common sense disappears for some people. The guy was clearly suffering from mental health problems, so sadly if it wasn’t a Video Game scene it would have been from a film or even a book. The distributor is obviously just protecting it’s image within the media but it can only be a matter of time before the mainstream press put their spin on this.

New Era Interactive Media issued the following statement:

“We are sending out requests today to outlets and shops to pull the games off their shelves and we will replace them with other games. We are also urging video game arcades to pull the games from service”

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