THE boss of Edinburgh video game company Rockstar North has said critics of the forthcoming Grand Theft Auto IV title are "the same kind of people who complained about Elvis".
Leslie Benzies, the president of the Capital-based firm, made the claim amid waves of protest aimed at the game, which is due to be released tomorrow.
But father-of-one Mr Benzies has shrugged off the criticism. The 37-year-old said the Grand Th
eft Auto games were victims of the same kind of misplaced moral panic that had greeted the early days of rock'n'roll.
He added: "There is a big fear factor here. It's (like) the coming of the railways, it's Elvis shaking his hips. It's cars going over 25 miles per hour and making people explode. We've had such a beating over the past three years, by the US government, the British government, the Daily Mail. 'You kill prostitutes' – that's usually the objection. I ask if they've ever played the game. Invariably they haven't."
The firm recently had to win a fight to have another of its titles, the ultra-violent horror game Manhunt 2, released in the UK. Mr Benzies added: "We wanted to make a horror game that would scare you in the same way a film would. If it's a film or a book, you can do what you want. We seem to be in a different category. We're very careful who we market the game to, and what is in the game."
Grand Theft Auto IV is the latest instalment in a series which has already sold more than 70 million copies. It will have an 18 certificate and is expected to take £200 million worldwide in its first week.
The original Grand Theft Auto was condemned by the Police Federation as "sick, deluded and beneath contempt" while subsequent versions have been criticised by parents and protest groups, due to their depiction of drug-dealing, murder and prostitution.
US Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has accused Rockstar of "stealing the innocence of our children and making the difficult job of being a parent even harder".
Mr Benzies' reaction comes after top neuroscientist Baroness Greenfield, said yesterday that the rush of continually winning and losing at computer games produces "hits" of dopamine – a euphoria-inducing chemical that has also been linked to drug dependency. She added the long-term result could be damage to a part of the brain that is key to forming personality.
However, another leading neuroscientist, Stafford Lightman, professor of medicine at Bristol University, says there is "no evidence at all" for Baroness Greenfield's theory about the longer-term personality effect.
