The Power Review

Ballad of Gay Tony: A Lawsuit Waiting to Happen

When you have one of the most popular gaming franchises that has inspired more lawsuits than any other series of video games in history, you would think that the developers wouldn’t purposefully release an expansion whose title screams, “Please sue me!!!1~”  (http://tinyurl.com/kju6n4)  Now that the dust has settled from the announcement of this next Xbox 360 exclusive expansion of Grand Theft Auto IV, I thought it would be an appropriate time to revisit the topic in order to ask the question, “What were the developers teams and PR teams over at Rockstar thinking?”

So, let’s recap:  Slated for release in the Fall of 2009 is the second expansion to the GTAIV world titled: The Ballad of Gay Tony.  Similarly to the first expansion, it will also be priced at $19.99 / 1600 MS Points.  However, the theme of this is in stark contrast to the first expansion which focused on the darker underbelly of Liberty City’s biker gangs.  Now, the main character Luis Lopez will be working for a glitzy nightclub owner named Tony “Gay Tony” Prince.  This is where the trouble begins…

With a game that is already the target of ludicrous lawsuits ranging from killings, to car thefts, to robberies, why would Rockstar put their metaphorical head on the chopping block again?  This game is setting itself up to be the target of a class action lawsuit from an entire segment of society simply by portraying them in a stereotypical and negative light.  I really don’t think that I’m overanalyzing the situation at all, especially considering that the GTA series is one of the most high profile series currently.  They will be under even more of a media spotlight once you remember what has happened to other recent releases this year:  Remember the racism claims when Resident Evil 5 was being released? (http://bit.ly/ip93W)

The only reason that Rockstar would make this bold move is simply for publicity.  The first Xbox 360 exclusive expansion set the record for day-one sales on the XBL marketplace, and now with the added publicity over the controversy of the name of this expansion, it looks like Rockstar is gearing up to steal this sales record crown from themselves.  With all of the money they will be making from this game, they can afford to pay off a couple class action lawsuits.  But the question remains, is this type of shameless promotion harmful to the company and franchise’s image?  Most likely not, because if the gamers really cared about negative publicity from the media, then the GTA franchise would have died long ago.  But only time will tell.

Please leave your thoughts and comments below!