Clearly you missed the UK government banning various, er, not PG-13 things from a certain film genre a day or two ago.

Think of all the butts that will be saved from being red!

I missed it, but I remember that they do have a strange aversion towards people having nookie. Murder, wars, you name it, but never show a bare butt!

And this... ladies and gentlemen. Is why I live in America

I actually like Aussies.

if people read the link, it is clearly because a bunch of people (likely parents) were complaining about it, not the first time such things have happened in this crazy world...


similar thing ALMOST happened in Canada after the release of both Vice City and San Andreas.. group of "over protective mothers" (sorry, thats all I can call them after hearing their arguments on the radio and such), were trying to get those titles banned from Shelves across the Country, they wanted to take it to the Supreme Court of Canada, but It never actually made it that far.. likely because Nobody took them seriously..

I remember the Argument they had made on a radio Show on CBC, "Ohh this is just the Beginning, Violent Video Games are corrupting our Youth this very moment! we plan to eventually get all Video Games that Contain any Violence Classified so they can only be bought by people 18+, and only in certain stores dedicated to them".. no wonder everyone thought that group was a literal joke, its a game not pormography..

My thoughts is that if a parent lets a kid purchase a game, they don't get the right to say its bad and should be banned.

If you don't want your kids playing it. Don't buy it. Let the people that like the game, enjoy it.

But those customers are Aussies are they not? So, it's all Australia's fault.

Pretty big stretch to suggest that Australia somehow is lacking 'freedom' because a single chain-store decided to stop selling a single game.

This is pretty much accurate, however it's important to make the distinction that games that were 'RC' (Refused Classification) were never 'banned', it was simply illegal to sell them in Australia as they hadn't been classified by the Australian Classification Board (which unlike in the States, is a legislated and federally mandated body). As Sami points out, they weren't 'banned' for the content in them, it was simply the Classification Board saying "we can't classify this under our current standards".

America, a country that increasingly resembles the world of GTA every single day. Somehow I'll stick with my nice safe country that occasionally tells me not to sell a video game thanks.

Target is already a dying company, so they did this to placate their customers because they need them and are desperate to keep them.

Do I think it's a good idea? Hell no.

However, they are a private company and they should be allowed to do whatever they want as long as they aren't infringing on people's rights, and no one should be able to tell them otherwise.

I hate politically correct anything, but I believe that business owners have their rights, and even though I personally wouldn't have bent over to these complaining customers and submitted to their will, target should be allowed to dig their own grave however they see fit, and if you don't like it, then don't shop there and the situation will resolve itself.

Though if any governments are banning things like this because they don't agree, then I have a really big problem with that. I don't like nanny state laws no matter what they are.

I don't shop at target anyway because they're crap, but if I did then I wouldn't any more just to say I don't agree with their decision and therefore lost me as a customer.

People who have never been to America for 200, Alex.

When I went to Florida I was told at the bus station not to wait outside because is wasn't safe!

At least we don't have Abbott for our leader. And I'd much rather live in a country that at least allows me to buy whatever game I want rather than a country that decides for me what games I am allowed to play.

I don't like where this thread is going.

Me neither.

EVACUATE! EVACUATE!!!

*jumps off and resists the urge to scream something snarky and hurtful to stoke the flames of the incoming flame war*

They banned it in their store because of violence to women in the game, just one store, no other game stores or specialty stores are banning it, fallout was a non event, they asked to make some changes, and the game went on sale with no worrys, some other games were questionable, but some of the the ones that that got censored were for good reasons.

Actually the censorship board is pretty good, especially with movies and television, whereas with the U.S. the releases are cut to pieces, the Australian, European and U.K. versions are all pretty much the same, i have copies of movies both Australian and U.S. that i mostly keep to give as example of what is cut from movies if you purchase the U.S. version, so before we get on the Australian censorship board are a bunch of crazies slashing everything that comes to our shores bandwagon as a matter of fact, its far from the case, weve been able to watch more on free to air television and movies since back in the 60's, 70's, 80,s till they got a little to politically correct then the 90's removed those restrictions and we can happily watch more than can be shown in the U.S. up until this day.

And if people want to buy the game they and purchase it from another store, its not banned here.

you can still buy most of those games if you are in Australia though, just not at the local game store.. all the various restrictions they have put on games over the years only applies to copies sold within Australia as far as I am aware.. you can legally Import it and not have to deal with restrictions

I sense a disturbance in the force..

That was me being a troll. :< Sorry for disturbing the Force.

@funnybunny- Interesting, good to know. Thanks for telling me.

Yes you are completely correct, i know many people who have personally purchased online, just dont try to get a store to try and ship one in because customs is actually pretty aware, also on the very rare occasion its been known that customs will withhold a banned game that has been ordered overseas, but its very rare and usually just to show that they can do it, or they'll send you a letter saying your a very naughty naughty person and you still get your game, i used to deal with customs alot in the past.

http://ign.com/articles/2014/12/04/kmart-is-also-pulling-gta-5-off-shelves-in-australia

Uh oh.

how stupid..


there are several reasons they could have stopped selling it for that may actually make a bit of Sense, such as the Strip Club for example, or the Scene where you are torturing the guy, that scene was extremely graphic..

But Violence against Women? I am sorry, but the GTA games are as equally Violent towards men as they are women.. arguably more so actually since the majority of Targets in Missions are Men (I can only think of a few examples in the whole series where the target was a Woman)..

choosing such a reason makes it sound like they are saying "ohh, so Men having their Heads shot off, being water-boarded, electrocuted, and having their teeth pulled out is fine, but punch a woman in the Street. god forbid!"

I am all for gender-equality, but that is the exact opposite of Gender-equality (which is what Feminism was Originally about)



the more I read into this, its starting to sound even more stupid than the incident Vice City and San Andreas set off here in Canada..

Wait .. wasen't target going to close? ... hmmm .. wonder why they still open ..

were they? they just opened up a ton load of stores in Atlantic Canada.. basically all the old Zellers locations were extremely renovated and were re-opened as Targets..

gotta say though, never been in one, just like I never enter Walmart..