New Era Interactive Media, the distributor for Grand Theft Auto IV in Thailand, has pulled the controversial title from Thai shelves following the murder of a cab driver by a teenager who claims to have been inspired by the game. 

The accused, an 18-year-old who was apparently obsessed with GTA IV, confessed to robbing and killing a 54-year-old cab driver, stating that he was trying to recreate a scene from the game.  Police apprehended the man while he was driving the stolen cab backwards on a Bangkok street with the murdered driver still in the back seat.  According to police investigator Veerat Pipattanasak, "He said he wanted to find out if it was as easy in real life to rob a taxi as it was in the game."

In the wake of the tragic event, New Era Interactive Media has sent out requests to retailers to pull the title from shelves, promising to replace the games with different titles. Sakchai Chotikachinda, sales and marketing director of New Era, added “We are also urging videogame arcades to pull the games from service.”

Normally, when videogames are blamed for a tragic event like this, it results in a whole lot of back and forth between gamers and anti-gamers, and despite the seemingly undeniable fact that he was inspired by one of the most notoriously violent games ever, this time will be no different.  It is my sincere hope that amidst all the bickering, no one forgets that a completely innocent man who probably couldn’t care less about games has violently died for no good reason.  Just a bit of perspective.


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