Grand Theft Auto 4, the latest entry in the provocative video game series, arrived in stores early this morning poised to become not only the best-selling game of the year, but also the most controversial.
Since its debut in 1997, the Grand Theft Auto series has been a frequent target of parents groups and politicians who oppose racy and violent content in video games. But despite those concerns, or perhaps partly because of them, the underworld action game could sell more than 9 million copies in its first week, easily outperforming last year's top-seller, Halo 3, analysts say.
Unlike Halo 3, which boasted a marketing campaign that rivaled a Hollywood blockbuster, the launch of Grand Theft - a Mature-rated game where players can drive drunk and hit up strip clubs - has been more viral than mainstream. Fast-food tie-ins and TV ads aren't part of the push - a reflection of the game's bad-boy image.
"This game is always cast as a murder simulator and it's not. ... But it's a game that's very much designed for adults," said Adam Sessler, host of X-Play, a daily cable-TV show about video games. "Given that it's called Grand Theft Auto, I don't think that they hide that fact that they're selling transgressive behavior."
Early reviews have been near unanimous in their praise for the game developed by New York-based Rockstar Games. A reviewer for The New York Times wrote yesterday that the game "sets a new standard for what is possible in interactive arts."
Yet even before the game's release, some parents' group have been urging retailers not to sell the video. Seemingly innocuous advertisements for the game have been pulled from buses in Chicago and Miami.
"I don't think anyone's going to be surprised by the content. They certainly haven't been marketing it as a departure for this series," Gavin McKiernan, a spokesman for the Parents Television Council, said of Rockstar Games. "They have a long history of [violent games], and we have no reason to believe that there will be anything different about this version."
Throughout the Grand Theft series, players take on the role of an underworld thug who works his way up the criminal ladder by stealing cars and killing rivals and bystanders alike.
In 2005, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas elicited a wave of negative publicity after media reports of an Internet add-on that allowed players to cavort with prostitutes.
