Retailers that include Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy and Circuit City have decided to pull “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” from their shelves, citing the rating of the game as “adults only.”
The game was originally rated as “M,” or for players 17 years old or older.
The manufacturer of the game reportedly has stopped making the current version of the game because of controversy surrounding a graphic sex scene that can be unlocked with a download from the Internet.
"Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" was last year's top console game, selling more than five million copies in the US, according to N-P-D Group. Versions of the game that can be played on X-box and on personal computers were released just last month.
The game was originally rated as “M,” or for players 17 years old or older.
The manufacturer of the game reportedly has stopped making the current version of the game because of controversy surrounding a graphic sex scene that can be unlocked with a download from the Internet.
"Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" was last year's top console game, selling more than five million copies in the US, according to N-P-D Group. Versions of the game that can be played on X-box and on personal computers were released just last month.
- KC's View:
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Considering our views of censorship, we had to think long and hard to make sure we were being consistent and not hypocritical as we formulated our views.
Obviously, not only are these retailers within their rights, but they are absolutely right. The “Grand Theft Auto” games are horrible enough, but to have hidden sex scenes imbedded within them just makes it worse. It’s offensive to almost everyone, and these retailers are just being sensitive to mainstream morays.
But this really isn’t any different from anything we’ve said before – all retailers have the right to decide what they want to sell and what they don’t want to sell.
We suppose that in the interest of consistency, we’d object if one of these retailers went in and edited the content of the games it sold. We’d object…but it’d be hard to get too passionate about it.
