Take Two has responded to Target Australia's decision to pull
Grand Theft Auto V from the shelves, claiming the action "flies in the face of everything a free society is based on."
The statement, made by Take Two president Karl Slatoff during a presentation at BMO Capital Markets 2014 Technology and Digital Media Conference, was
reported by Gamesindustry.biz.
"It's one thing for someone to not want to buy a piece of content, which is completely understandable," he stated. "And that's really the solution. If you don't like it and it's offensive to you, then you don't buy it. But for a person or group of people to try to make that decision for millions of people... we have 34 million people who bought
Grand Theft Auto, and if these folks had their way, none of those people would be able to buy
Grand Theft Auto.
"And that really just flies in the face of everything that free society is based on. It's a freedom of expression, and to try to squelch that is a dangerous and slippery slope to go down. So it's really more disappointing for us in that regard than it is in the context of our business. Our business is going to be completely unaffected by this; it doesn't make a difference to us. At the end of the day though, it's not something you want because it's a poor leadership decision."
Target
pulled GTA V from shelves in response to customer complaints about the game's depiction of violence, especially violence against women.
