Location: Home Page » Grand Theft Auto IV » News » now blamed for Thai murder, causing removal from shelves

Grand Theft Auto IV - now blamed for Thai murder, causing removal from shelves

Monday 4th of August, 2008 - 15:53:34 GMT

Reuters reported that the multi-million selling GTA IV has been squarely blamed for influencing an 18-year old to commit robbery and murder in Thailand, despite his age matching the ratings in the UK, to name just one country.

"[The killer] wanted to find out if it was as easy in real life to rob a taxi as it was in the game," chief police investigator Veeravit Pipattanasak told the international news wire. It was slightly stupid to be homicidally inquisitive in a country with the death penalty. However, the policeman also confirmed that the man showed no signs of mental illness when under questioning and confessed to the crime - albeit with the attempt to blame the game.

Predictably, this has resulted in yet more controversy heaped upon Rockstar's flagship title, which we assume was working for long enough without its well-documented technical problems to allegedly influence the crime.

Reuters mentioned the case and lawsuit in Alabama four years ago when GTA III was blamed for one man's killing of two policemen and an emergency dispatch worker. That lawsuit failed along with the killer's attempt to avoid death row, and chances are the same will happen with this case.

The only silver lining to this terrible event was that the Thai Government, unlike the British one, was much more forceful in urging parents to ensure they knew what their children were playing on their games consoles. This killer was 18 though so that woudn't have affected his choice to kill. Since Thailand does not yet have the equivalent of the BBFC passing wide judgement on adult-orientated videogame content, one distributor mounted a Dixons-styled voluntary withdrawl of the game from sales for an undetermined period of time.

- Ken

0 comments