IGN Pulls Controversial GTA4 'Ladies of Liberty' Video
MTV News is reporting that IGN and their parent company have pulled a GTA4 video called Ladies of Liberty City off their website in which the player visits multiple strip clubs and enjoys a couple of hookers by shooting them or having sex with them before shooting them. Gamers who've played GTA might not see anything wrong with this, but apparently IGN did and claims they crossed the line on how they portrayed the game.
IGN’s goal is to show our users all aspects of popular games on the market. In this case, we crossed a line in how we portrayed some aspects of the game and we’ve taken this video down. - IGN
A few months back during the Manhunt 2 fiasco IGN's Matt Casamassina regretted their coverage of the Wii version of the game, specifically the ability to castrate enemies, and said that they, IGN, had probably contributed to the game being banned and censored - which effectively killed any hype and sales. It wasn't the fact that they covered those aspects of Manhunt 2, but how they covered them. So I ask could this situation have something to do with that?
On the other hand why is the gaming press now worried about how certain games are portrayed? Why should they care if their video, which is simply stuff that you can do in the game, is controversial to some people? The only reason I can think of for them doing this is pressure from Take-Two because they are the makers of the game and the only ones who care how their game is portrayed in the gaming press. So did Take-Two get angry at IGN for their video and cause them to take it down? Seems like the only explanation that makes any sense.
Since the launch of GTA4 a lot of shady stuff has been going on. Scores are getting bumped, reviewers are claiming perfection in spite of the game's obvious glitches and problems and now videos that may make the game look bad are getting pulled. Seriously, what the F*CK is going on here?
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