Taking a leaf from Captain Obvious’ book, Rockstar VP Dan Houser has stated that he expects Grand Theft Auto IV to be controversial when it’s released on April 29th. This game may very well be full of surprises, but controversy certainly isn’t one of them. This is what Houser had to say on the matter:
“I expect [controversy] because we’ve had so much of it in the past. I wish people would treat video games the same as other media. They seem to not want to do that for reasons that I don’t understand. It’s a convenient enemy for people.”
I completely agree with the philosophy of Dan’s words, but I’m also not so naive as to think that Rockstar is an innocent bunny rabbit in this whole issue. Rockstar relies on this kind of controversy, it’s part and parcel of the GTA experience, and indeed, nearly any game the company makes. It’s certainly not right that people get up in arms about what should be a non-issue, but Rockstar bats the beehive more than anyone else. Good on them in some respects, but let’s not pretend we don’t know what we’re doing.
One man celebrating the upcoming release is everybody’s favorite game hater, Jack Thompson, mainly because it gives him something to do again. Thompson has declared that he will be contacting state and federal officials to ensure that no copies of GTAIV get sold to minors. Good for you Jack … have fun with that.
GTAIV is on the way, and I can’t wait. Provided Rockstar gives me some open-ended fun to go with my controversy, then they can goad silver-haired lawyers all they like.
