Australian retail giant pulls Grand Theft Auto V after protests

Great. Now if they'll just stop selling all the other sickening videos games that encourage violence in general...

Bah, its just that retail store. Aussie fans will just buy it from a different outlet. While I can understand the offense to those formerly forced into sex slavery, this is still a fictional game. This game "encourages" real life violence against women just about as much as it "encourages" organized crime activity, car jackings, and murder. Easily impressionable idiots and mentally disturbed people are the only ones who would believe what's done in a fictional game is what should be done in real life. As I've said, people that can't draw the line between reality and fiction are the ones people should be afraid of.

@Serrano, why stop there? How about banning all media that has any content that relates to violence. Sounds stupid doesn't it! The fact that what you do in the game is clearly of your own volition and not forced upon encourages nothing.

The same way we have free will in our lives to do or not do something. I would love for you to tell me how COD and numerous other games have influenced or encouraged people to go out and cause violent crimes. Some facts and figures would be great!

What did the signers of this petition think? Only shooting of men would be allowed? SMH

"Grand Theft Auto has won legions of fans around the world, and as many critics, for game play in which winning depends on acts such as carjacking, gambling and killing."

This just goes to show you there are warped people around the world.

Virtually everyone who slates GTA has never played it. Some books have inspired violence, suicides etc. Of course if you talk about banning books you'd rightly be thought of as extremist or oppressive.

There are people out there who just want to spoil other people's fun.

Stralia has the worst game censors in the world. I remember GTA 4 was heavily censored when it first came out in Aus, so I just ordered it from Gamestop in the US, which was uncensored and cheaper. Thousands of people did the same thing and Aussie retailers lost loads of cash because of it

I play the US versions when possible too. The only non-censored version of the last South Park game was the North American version, because of an alien anal probe scene. As I said, some people just want to spoil our fun.

@HonestDictator ... Easily impressionable idiots and mentally disturbed people are the only ones who would believe what's done in a fictional game is what should be done in real life.

"Easily impressionable" and "mentally disturbed" sounds like a stage of development that a lot of teenage boys have always gone through. So maybe you're right, and these games are indeed one factor in the surge of school shooting massacres.

Don't know if it's any connection to the Abbott administration but increasingly these days I'm of the opinion that Australia just doesn't.....get it?

Fight against censorship, folks. All this silliness has made me want to pick up a copy of the game for PC, since the mods will be lots of fun.

There has always been and will always be violence. Did Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Genghis Khan, Charles Manson, etc. play too much GTA? I've played through the first few missions and it's not much different than any "R" rated movie.

I've played video games since I was five years old (I'm 29) and generally play a few hours a day. I have other interests such as studying foreign languages (I speak both Japanese and Mandarin), listening to foreign music, exercising, and reading books on current events and history.

Going down under isn't what it used to be!

“Games like this are grooming yet another generation of boys to tolerate violence against women,”

boys? I bet the people that signed the petition either did not play the game or forgot to look at the left bottom corner of the cd case wich usually says 18+ or M for mature. This game is not meant to be played by boys but by adults. If they gonna ban games like this then why not ban all those other violent games and movies too that have been made in the past 60 years.

I feel like its a bit stupid for people to go without their research. oh Im gonna buy this 18+ game for my kids. And then they surprised and see the game and start signing those petitions, while thinking these games are made for their kids.

I do think shop owners should watch out more if a 12 year old is going to buy a game wich is has adult rating.