Grand Theft Auto V has lastly secured a launch in Saudi Arabia 12 years after its preliminary launch, due to the introduction of a brand new 21+ age ranking within the area.
Rockstar Video games’ multi-million promoting crime romp arrived in Saudi Arabia and the UAE yesterday with an age ranking of 21+, and is accompanied by Grand Theft Auto On-line. This marks the primary time that the long-running franchise has been granted an official launch in these territories.
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Niko Companions, a market analysis firm, had the next to say:
Traditionally, online game approvals within the area have been constrained by conservative rules resulting in a excessive variety of bans for video games that featured sturdy violence, sexual content material, substance use, or themes conflicting with native spiritual or cultural norms.
The primary indicators of change got here in 2016, when Saudi Arabia launched localized age rankings that changed their reliance on the PEGI system. This allowed titles comparable to God of Conflict and Crimson Useless Redemption 2, which might usually have been banned below the prior system, to realize delayed approvals after tweaks had been made to content material and localization. Nevertheless, titles like Remaining Fantasy XVI remained banned below this technique after failing to satisfy native necessities.
Grand Theft Auto V was initially launched for the PS3 and Xbox 360 again in September 2013, with GTA On-line following a month later. PS4 and Xbox One ports adopted in 2014, and the sport was even ported to PS5 and Xbox Sequence X/S a couple of years in the past, making it accessible on three generations of console {hardware}.
Rockstar Video games is at the moment engaged on the extremely anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI, which was initially due out in Fall 2025 however has now been pushed to Could 26, 2026.
Konvoy’s Josh Chapman stated earlier this week that Grand Theft Auto VI is anticipated to rake in a whopping $7.6 billion in its first two months on sale. Final month, it was reported that the story for the upcoming sequel was rejected thrice earlier than a closing model was authorized, resulting in the departure of Dan Houser.
[Source – Niko Partners via VGC]
