The Sun is first newspaper to declare fury over DS GTA drug dealing
Criticises glamorisation of substance misuse
The Sun has run the headline 'Fury over drug deal vid game' in response to the news Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars includes a drug-dealing mini-game.
The newspaper reports the game has been blasted by charities, including Drugsline, whose spokesperson Darren Gold says: "Anything using drug-dealing as entertainment is sending out the wrong message.
"Glamorisation doesn't help our work trying to educate kids of the dangers of substance misuse."
The newspaper also says that experts predict the final edition is unlikely to feature explicit criminality.
It's no surprise a new Grand Theft Auto game look set to re-spark the violent video game debate.
What is more interesting is Nintendo seemingly happy to let it happen alongside the DS brand. In an interview conducted with Rockstar co-founder Sam Houser in the latest issue of Edge, Houser says: "Nintendo wanted us to make GTA, and we wanted to make a game on their platform. They didn't want us to make a GTA for kids, and we weren't interested in making a game we wouldn't normally make."
Up until now, Nintendo has gone to a lot of trouble promoting DS as a console for families. Now it seems the company is very consciously about to get involved in a stir which could just serve to remind those who view DS differently to other game consoles that it is a games machine with violent games they don't want their kids playing, just like the rest of them.
Perhaps it's a good time to take such a risk now DS is so established in the marketplace with millions of units sold. And you could say that the one type of user Nintendo has neglected most with DS to date is the one belonging to the adult or core gamer demographics. Grand Theft Auto has sold massively well on PSP, proving there's a handheld market for the game. Bundled with DS, it could shift Nintendo a whole lot more consoles and elevate the handheld's reputation within a gaming group that has increasingly abandoned the format.
So is a no-holds-barred GTA a calculated risk for Nintendo, or could it undo all the careful work it's done promoting DS as casual system for the family, and educational tool to boot? Let's have a heated debate.
