Why You Shouldn't Read the Tabloids

You couldn't make it up.

This from games industry trade magazine, MCV:

Unless MCV is hugely mistaken British tabloid, The Daily Star, is actually claiming that a Raoul Moat game is in the works.



In what could possibly be the most outrageous piece of video games reporting in a national UK paper, The Daily Star has today expressed its “fury” at news that a Raoul Moat version of Grand Theft Auto is in production.


Apparently “gaming websites” (though obviously not the ones we read) have shown the cover of “a version of the XBox hit Grand Theft Auto”, supposedly called GTA Rothbury, that’s based on the recent Northumberland shootings that dominated the news earlier this month.


“It is sick – it’s blood money,” the sister of Moat’s ex-partner Samantha Stobbart told the paper. “The game is beyond belief.”


MCV’s guess? Someone somewhere in a dark corner of the internet mocked up the cover (pictured). Somehow this came to the attention of a sorely uneducated non-gamer at The Daily Star. The rest, minus any fact checking or common sense, is history.


MCV has contacted The Daily Star for comment.


UPDATE: It seems that The Daily Star has removed the story. A moment of sense, presumably. We're still awaiting comment.

Click on the screen grab below then magnify for much hilarity.