http://www.target.com.au/medias/marketing/corporate/PDF/media-release/GTA-Media-Release-v2.pdf

I can't even believe this.

Australia is notorious for banning video games they think are inappropriate, this is honestly nothing new.

Yup, no real surprise, Australia cencored Left 4 Dead 2 for a while IIRC.

And it's one store, or one brand of store (only Target right?). Some stores here in Norway stopped selling certain games (WoW and CoD IIRC) for a short while after the massacre in 2011.

So, some stores will ban things when there is a strong reaction to something, and it's about what voices are heard, people who think GTA V is fine don't come back to the store and say so. People who think it's oppressive might be more inclined to do so. It svcks, but it's how the world works.

I just find it unbelievable that we now have an R18+ rating and it hasn't seemed to really solve anything.

And the fact they are continuing to stock other R18+ products, including films.

Exactly. Violent movies. porm. but no, only video game is evil.

True, and the rating I think it's 18+ here in Norway too, does indicate the content and it's maturity level. So if people found the content of GTA shocking it's kinda their own fault. Most games tell you what they are about when you read the cover and the rating.

And don't you beat up/blow up/murder/curb stomp, tons of dudes too? I guess when guys get beat to a bloody pulp it's ok. Not trying to start one of "those" discussions, but it's interesting to note. Unless of course, multiple shooters have been banned as well.

India banned Fallout 3 upon release due to the two-headed cows in the game. Cows are sacred and held in high regard in India.

Australia banned Fallout 3 due to the fact of its illicit drug use. Although every other drug had its own unique name, such as jet, psycho, Buffout, etc Med-X was originally named Morphine and after seeing that and the other in-game drugs and the forms they were used made it obvious that these drugs were based off real life counter parts. Numerous other popular countries were troubled with the drug issue and contemplated Fallout's release but even after changing morphine to a ficticious drug Australia kept the game banned.

I think its a different situation with video games since it is an interactive experience, unlike just watching a violent movie. Thus, some people tend to look at them as "murder simulators".

But as Emberoth mentioned, these sort of things can happen because of recent events. And not just for video games, as it has happened with movies as well. Django Unchained's (an extremely violent Quentin Tarantino movie) December 2012 premiere was cancelled due to the Sandy Hook shooting and got pushed to March 2013.

This isn't new. They even banned Saints Row IV because it had some suggestive contents and items they deemed offensive. Volition had to make a copy of the game without the items for it to be sold in Australia.

This isn't surprising, Australia is pretty messed up in its Freedom.

Yeah, there seem to be a few games that have a special Australian version, the only other country I can think of off the top of my head that also occationally have gotten their own cencored versions is Germany.

Other than the decision of Microsoft to not release the Xbox version of the game in India, Fallout 3 was never banned in any countries. There was criticism of it's drug depiction in Australia and nuclear weapons in Japan, but it has been available in both countries on all platforms since it's release. I've bought retail Xbox and PC copies of it in Australia myself.

...and Japan. I'm pretty sure you can't nuke Magaton.

Yeah that might be true, there probably are more countries too, but Australia and Germany are the ones I've come across.

Actually, this is something new, and would make for a concerning change if it spreads to other stores.

The bans we became notorious for were technically not bans; 'Bout all media imported to Australia must be assessed and classified before they can be sold, and until recently the highest rating available for games was 15+. This resulted in a number of games slipping through which probably shouldn't have been put in the hands of 15 year olds, but I think the gaming community is overall grateful that the people doing it bent the guidelines.... because it also meant that a number of games could not be classified, as there was no way one could justify a mere 15+ sticker.

What happens if a game (or movie, or whatever) is refused classification and doesn't receive a rating? It cannot be legally sold in Australia. This does in effect ban it, but the long standing issue for games was not that the classification board objected to certain games outright, it was just that they didn't have an appropriate rating for them. So they had to go the same way as various games I would be banned from these forums for describing in anything like detail (..mostly of Japanese origin, to be honest).

Well Brazil complained about Max Payne 3 but it wasn't banned, after all, rockstar made an almost perfect representation of brazil.

People, people read the damn link. Target received a bunch of complaints regarding GTAV from their customers, and thus, in accordance with their customer's wishes stopped selling it. If anyone is to blame it is the complaining customers.

But we did ban about another Rockstar game: Bully. Even though I have seen it for sale on online retailers, so I guess nobody cares anymore.

I have Bully for 360. Chupa governo

There's a specific reason why it was banned and I won't delve into it, but it revolves around double standard nature of a certain political/ethics movement. However, due to restrictions of discussing such things, I will sit on my hands and simply say I rolled my eyes when I saw this article on another site.

Ahh. Gotta love that violence against men is socially acceptable.

Weren't the previous bans done by the Australian government though? Or is this sort of thing also common in the private sector in Australia?

Political correctness and the Nanny state is ingrained into Australia and it won't be leaving any time soon. A typical response from government (all political types, it's mainly the public service who's in control) is not to deal with the real issues at the heart of a problem but to bring in punitive restrictive policies on the subjects which make life that bit harder for everyone so they (the government, all of them) can sit back and not do their jobs properly. A store like Target is just afraid of running afoul of the correctness monster living here, stores have pulled other things of their shelves in the past if it's been even slightly controversial after a few complaints.

The British government wont ban anything if it makes money, unless that is they're told to by their bosses in D.C.

CVS stopped selling all tobacco products, it's no surprise when big business wants to ban what's bad for you