GTA VI ads are missing the guns, and the reason is underage players

Why does the GTA VI TV ad look different?

On 20 October, during the NBA's opening night, NBC aired the first TV spot. It was the launch trailer Rockstar had published five days earlier, with edits. Of the three shower scenes with the couple, only the first stayed. Guns, explosions and robberies remained.

The game carries an M rating from the ESRB, with descriptors including intense violence, nudity and sexual content. The ESRB can fine publishers up to $1 million for breaking its advertising guidelines, such as showing nudity or weapons pointed at the viewer.

Who is really playing GTA?

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said in March he couldn't see why anyone over 17 with a console would skip the game, and that he wanted to reach "every appropriate person". That leaves minors out, on purpose. Yet a YouGov survey published this week found that 63% of British people who have played GTA first did so before turning 18, and one in five before 12. Former 2K boss Christoph Hartmann said his 14-year-old son insists on playing because his dad worked on it.

A company that needs the biggest audience possible can't openly admit part of it is too young. Taking the pistol out of Lucia's hand on a facade is a way to deal with that without a moral debate. NYU games business professor Joost Van Dreunen noted that Rockstar's appeal was always being the game "my mother won't let me play". Keeping that edge is harder when the posters are tidied up.

In the United Arab Emirates, women on the cover are blurred, though there Rockstar doesn't get the final say. For now, GTA VI ads come with guns and without them.