Daily Star “Reveal” New GTA Game

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Sometimes you just don’t have the words. Sadly, when you’re writing a story you actually do need to have some, so I’m writing this through the grittiest teeth I can muster: the Daily Star newspaper is claiming that a “Raoul Moat version” of “Grand Theft Auto” is in production over at Rockstar.

The game, which to our knowledge doesn’t actually exist in any official capacity, is causing “fury”, with the newspaper citing “gaming websites” that apparently “showed the cover of Grand Theft Auto Rothbury – a version of the XBox hit Grand Theft Auto”.

We struggled to find any mention of such a game on any official channels, although a few spoofs have been floating around for a while.

The ‘mock-up’ that the Daily Star picked up is below, taken from the newspaper’s site:



The game, again, according to the Daily Star, “is named after the Northumberland town where Moat, 37, hid then shot himself after his gun rampage in which he shot ex-lover Samantha Stobbart, 22, killed her lover Chris Brown, 29, and shot and blinded Pc David Rathband, 42 in both eyes.” Thanks for reminding us.

The Daily Star then has what appear to be quotes from Samantha’s grandmother Ann Hornsby, 69: “I can’t believe someone wants to make money out of people who have been killed. It is sick – it’s blood money. The game is beyond belief.”

“Someone wants to make money out of people who have been killed”? Yes, someone does. By writing fabricated stories based around a commonly demonised entertainment medium to sell newspapers. As dedicated fans of video gaming, we’re with Mrs. Hornsby – it is sick.

Update: The Daily Star have now pulled their “story.” Unfortunately for them, the internet never forgets.

Surely Rockstar could sue

If it was true would Gazza be in it lol

i cant even begin to see how they came up with this and how anyone would ever believe it

its not even like a one of those jokes you get in txts as soon as some big news happens.

so they must infact actually employ full on retards?

"the daily star is claiming rockstar are making a raoul moat game" lost for words now, its not even a joke gone bad

The Daily Star are a bunch of thick cunts.

Can't wait to explore my own house GTA style

illl rob ya cant!

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Jerry Lawton, the journalist who made up a story about “Grand Theft Auto: Rothbury” and then lied to a grieving grandmother to get quotes? Well this morning the Daily Star, Mr Lawton’s employers and the publishers of that invented story, have admitted they were wrong. The British tabloid has accepted that there was no accuracy in the story, that they didn’t do even the most basic of fact-checking and that the article was entirely incorrect.

The publication has posted a public apology to Rockstar. They also say they’ve paid “substantial damages” which Rockstar will be giving to charity (which is nice of them) and fully retracted the story in a statement which, in part, reads:

We made no attempt to check the accuracy of the story before publication and did not contact Rockstar Games prior to publishing the story. We also did not question why a best selling and critically acclaimed fictional games series would choose to base one of their most popular games on this horrifying real crime event.

It is now accepted that there were never any plans by Rockstar Games to publish such a game and that the story was false. We apologise for publishing the story using a mock-up of the game cover, our own comments on the matter and soliciting critical comments from a grieving family member.

We think that it takes a certain amount of honour to accept you were wrong and apologise. We’d like to congratulate the Daily Star for having the decency to admit their appalling journalistic practice in this instance and apologise for their mistake. Now, will Jerry Lawton show similar respect for truth and decency by apologising for his FaceBook tirade against gamers?

Nice of them to give the money to Charity

we didnt check with rockstar for accuracy... Cors you didnt Cos it was obv not true, but you wanted to publish it for funsies. Why even say that as an appollagy