"According to a report from newspaper La Vanguardia, by way of GamePolitics and Google's Spanish to English translator, Spain's cabbies are calling for a ban on Grand Theft Auto — Grand Theft Auto IV, we presume. After a Thai teenager was arrested on suspicion of murdering a taxi driver, claiming to have been inspired by GTA, the game was pulled from shelves in Thailand.

Now, Josep Maria Goñi, secretary general of the Catalan Taxi Federation, is asking the Spanish government to do the same,..."

"So does media imitate society, or does society imitate media? Since both are extensions of human nature, the answer can only be both. But as a video game, GTA is just a simulation - a make-believe world where you have no consequences for shooting peoples' heads off or cutting up cops with chainsaws while stoned off your ass.

These troubled teens have learned the hard way that reality doesn't translate well from video games and that they can't get away with everything.

Interestingly, ..."

"Mr. Houser denies using those words, but says he has often felt the sentiment they imply. "That's an area I've grown up in, definitely," he says."

""Grand Theft Auto would be super interesting for me, and I think I would actually be the right guy to do it, because my movies are all bloody and violent and I don't have a problem with action scenes," said Boll. "But look, they will go, in the end, with a Michael Bay or a Brett Ratner, and it will be a PG-13 movie made for $150 million. I think it would be better to make a $30 million, very hard, brutal movie without compromising, but I'm not optimistic.""

"Microsoft didn’t see GTAIII on the Xbox until 2003. It was bigger, better and had more features on the Xbox. It sold very well considering the lower install base of the Xbox. By this time however, it was too late. The PS2 was already dominating the console world. GTAIII was a household name and it was the game that sent the PS2 into celebrity hardware status. Even after the game finally arrived for the Xbox, it continued to sell well on the PS2. Those single console owners that had Xboxes sti..."

"We all feared that if EA took over Take 2 they would destroy GTA forever just like they have done with takeovers in the past. I think that EA would have completely destroyed GTA by trying to make it ’their’ game and just lose that GTA touch altogether. It wouldn’t be GTA at all. No one can do it as good as Rockstar.

We no longer need to worry because it hasn’t happened and Take 2 has rejected all of EA’s offers.

What’s your view on this? Do you think EA had the potential to destroy the ..."

"When did a videogame release become such a big deal?

Well, the U.S. videogame industry is worth a whopping $18.8 billion a year--that's less than McDonald's makes selling burgers and fries but 2.5 times as much as all the music CDs sold last year. It's also enough money to turn even the most conservative of entertainment executives' heads. Scott Steinberg, vice president of product marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment America, predicts we're about to see the "GTA Effect"--box office sa..."

"Well, OK, yes. As a series, Grand Theft Auto has always been heaped with accolades from critics and fans - and for the most part, it's deserved them. But take a step back from the open-world approach and rampant criminality for a second, and ask yourself: deep down, is the series really as smart as it's given credit for? Or has the freedom to get into firefights with Florida retirees blinded us to its shortcomings?

With Grand Theft Auto IV set to redefine the series' tone and sense of smar..."

"But we all know that won’t prevent everyone under 17 from getting their hands on the game.
I recently talked to three teenagers who have owned and played “GTA” since well before the age of 17 — with and without their parents’ permission — about their past experiences with “GTA” games.
One 15 year-old told me his parents don’t allow him to play M-rated games without their approval, and “GTA” is strictly off-limits. However, he acquired “San Andreas” though a game-trading website, and they do..."

"“We already own it, I believe, from a content standpoint, because we have the exclusive episodes,” trumpeted studio boss Shane Kim before adding that the “Xbox 360 is still going to have the ultimate experience for GTA IV… we have to make sure the customers know that.”


With Microsoft existing as the only console player with exclusive downloadable episodes for Grand Theft Auto IV, Microsoft sees the upcoming launch as a “great opportunity” for the Xbox 360 platform to mirror the developme..."

"A guy who attended Jack Thompson’s open panel debate about violence in video games at the VideoGame Expo in Philadelphia, had a PS2 copy of Grand Theft Auto III signed by everyones favorite video game lawyer and is now selling it on eBay for a hefty sum."

"'Rockstar Games has one of the most celebrated collections of AAA titles available to gamers today and we’re proud to add the Grand Theft Auto series and the entire Rockstar catalog to our world-class library of content. By providing our customers with the ability to easily download these popular titles immediately, Direct2Drive continues to solidify its spot as the gaming industry’s premiere digital retail store.'"

"Pay special attention to the text in the bold… look familiar? It should: It’s the same damn text, taken from a PlayStation blog post that was made on July 27th by Michael Shorrock, talking about how Sony locked up the rights to a NEW franchise from Rockstar. Outside of mentioning that Rockstar MADE the actual game, there is no mention of the GTA franchise anywhere in that post."

"Forbidden fruit.

It’s almost common sense: if you can’t have it, you suddenly want it.

So it should be no surprise that a recent survey in the July issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health found that many boys and girls aged 12-14 played games rated M, intended for those 17 & older.

The always controversial Grand Theft Auto series made it into the top three games for both boys and girls, with Halo being popular only with boys. The survey didn’t address how the kids got hold of M-rat..."

"The recent trailer for Grand Theft Auto IV portrays Liberty City as looking more like New York City, raising concerns among politicians over the inclusion of their city in a notoriously violent game. So, we investigated the cities of Grand Theft Auto (GTA) to find out which streets were the most dangerous to walk down as a gaming bystander."