So often on the receiving end of legal action regarding its hugely controversial Grand Theft Auto franchise, videogame publisher Take-Two Interactive has this week broken the mould somewhat by going on the Grand Theft Auto offensive against the Chicago Transit Authority.
GTA IV publisher Take-Two Interactive slams Chicago Transit Authority over abandoned ad campaign. Image: Marcin Wichary/Flickr.
More pointedly, Take-Two is suing the city’s transit authority through a federal court in Manhattan following the abrupt removal of a $300,000 USD advertising campaign for Grand Theft Auto IV just days after it officially began.
In accusing the Chicago Transit Authority and its sales agent, Titan Outdoor LLC, of violating contractual agreements and the publisher’s right to free speech, Take-Two has outlined that the GTA IV poster campaign launched on buses and transit displays on April 22 but then inexplicably disappeared only a few days into its scheduled six-week run.
According to Take-Two’s suit, the transit authority removed the ad campaign without explanation following the airing of a television news report criticising the city’s decision to run advertising for the controversial crime-based videogame after a spate of violent crimes across Chicago.
The hugely popular Grand Theft Auto series is famous, and infamous, for placing players in a violent, narrative-driven sandbox environment that pushes them up the criminal ladder through repeated instances of carjacking, hit-and-runs, prostitution, revenge killings, contract hits, drug deals, and drive-by shootings.
Take-Two Interactive is seeking monetary damages of at least $300,000 USD along with a court order forcing the Chicago Transit Authority to re-post the ad campaign in its entirety.
The Chicago Transit Authority has not yet offered up any official comment to the suit.
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