Take-Two criticises Australian retailers for pulling GTA 5

Take-Two has criticised Target and Kmart’s decision to pull Grand Theft Auto 5 from sale in Australia, stating that the game’s removal “flies in the face of everything that free society is based on”.

The two retailers took the game off shelves last week following concerns over the game’s content.

“It’s one thing for someone to not want to buy a piece of content, which is completely understandable,” president Karl Slatoff is reported to have said during a presentation at a BMO Capital Markets conference yesterday. “And that’s really the solution. If you don’t like it and it’s offensive to you, then you don’t buy it. But for a person or a group of people to try to make that decision for millions of people… We have 34 million people who bought Grand Theft Auto, and if these folks had their way, none of those people would be able to buy Grand Theft Auto.

“And that really just flies in the face of everything that free society is based on. It’s the freedom of expression, and to try to squelch that is a dangerous and slippery slope to go down.”

Slatoff claims that Take-Two’s business will be “completely unaffected” by the game’s removal from the two chains, reminding attendees that “there are other places for folks to buy Grand Theft Auto in Australia”.

“It’s really more disappointing for us in that regard than it is in the context of our business,” he continued. “Our business is going to be completely unaffected by this; it doesn’t make a difference to us. At the end of the day though, it’s not something you want because it’s a poor leadership decision.”

Target initially claimed that its “decision to stop selling GTA5 is in line with the majority view of our customers”, stating that feedback it had received indicated “that this is not a product they want us to sell.”

Source: gamesindustry.biz