Target Australia has pulled Grand Theft Auto V from sale in all of its stores, citing violence against women depicted in the game as being the reasoning behind their decision.
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The decision was made after receiving extensive negative feedback from customers, Target claimed, with General Manager of Corporate Affairs Jim Cooper saying: “We’ve been speaking to many customers over recent days about the game, and there is a significant level of concern about the game’s content.
“We’ve also had customer feedback in support of us selling the game, and we respect their perspective on the issue. However, we feel the decision to stop selling GTA5 is in line with the majority view of our customers.”
He continued: “While these products often contain imagery that some customers find offensive, in the vast majority of cases, we believe they are appropriate products for us to sell to adult customers.
“However, in the case of GTA5, we have listened to the strong feedback from customers that this is not a product they want us to sell.”
R-rated video games have a notoriously difficult time making their way due to Australia due to the region’s incredibly strict laws against graphic content in the medium, though this is a rare instance in which a store itself has decided to not stock a game, even though it had managed to be accepted by the Australian Classification Board.
It’s unquestionable that GTA5 is a violent game and yes, it does depict violence against women (along with violence against men and animals), though as an opponent of censorship in any entertainment medium, especially when said censorship is prohibiting a game strictly for adults being sold to adults, I find this news more than a little irritating. Hopefully gamers in Australia got their hands on GTAV before this decision was made, as we can imagine many stores will now be following suit with Target in order to keep up appearances.
