Grand Theft Auto IV blamed for Thai killing – game pulled from shelves

Gary Cutlack Gaming
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GTA-IV-banned-thailand.jpgThis isn’t your usual tabloid shock story, where there was a robbery and one of the items taken just so happened to be a PlayStation. This is FOR REAL.

A Thai teenager has confessed to robbing and killing a taxi driver – then allegedly told police he was trying to recreate a scene from Grand Theft Auto. There’s no denying the facts or fudging the issue here – he was copying the game. It’s a 100% confirmed copycat crime. There’s going to be trouble over this. Big trouble.

“He said he 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 news-gathering superblog Retuers…

The other details of the case make rather gruesome and depressing reading, particularly for GTA publisher Take 2 which is well used to seeing its GTA crime mega-franchise blamed for all of society’s ills – but having GTA specifically fingered for a killing takes it to a new level.

The game has been taken off the shelves in Thailand by its local distributor. Expect media “fuss” of a hitherto unknown level over this one.

(Via Retuers)

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Gary Cutlack
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One thought on “Grand Theft Auto IV blamed for Thai killing – game pulled from shelves”

  • Nah.. i don’t agree.

    I think this will get swept under the carpet, because in this country it’ll be explained away as a crazy johnny foreigner going loopy with a gun.

    Now if it had happened that some chav in a small town oop Narth had done it.. well then, maybe there would be trouble.

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