I doubt that the Daily Star would have made it up, but these things can be easily made up by some one and the journalists simply failed to fact check. It happens all the time.

Good lord, that hoax is even stupider than the one that the Sun fell for about the Red Arrows being banned from the Olympics.

The Daily Star writer responsible for yesterday's Raoul Moat GTA game claim has responded to an outraged reaction via his Facebook profile, and had a pop at gamers in the process.

Jerry Lawton's latest Facebook status reads:

"[Jerry Lawton] is baffled by the fury of adult gamers! These are grown (?!?) men who sit around all day playing computer games with one another who've today chosen to enter the real world just long enough to complain about my story slamming a Raoul Moat version of Grand Theft Auto!"

"You would think I'd denied the Holocaust!!! Think I'...ll challenge them to a virtual reality duel....stab....I win!!!"

The original Daily Star article was taken offline soon after outrage across the gaming community became wide spread.

CVG contacted Rockstar to ask if the publisher was considering retaliation against the Star's report, but recieved no official response.

Why is it a problem to slam a Raoul Moat version of Grand Theft Auto? Because erm, it's not real? Perhaps Lawton should take his wholly inaccurate story back to the fantasy world it references...

[Disclaimer: Some aspects of this report represent the writer's opinion]

The Daily Star has apologised "unreservedly" for printing a story which suggested a GTA game linked to killer Raoul Moat was being planned.

In a full retraction published today, the UK newspaper revealed it was to pay a "substantial amount" in damages to GTA publisher Rockstar - and that the games firm was passing the cash onto charity.

CVG broke the story of the article's existence earlier this week. We, like you, were a bit annoyed.

The newspaper subsequently removed the offending content from its website. However, the journalist behind the article instead chose to ridicule the adult gaming audience.


The full statement printed by the Star today reads:

'On 21 July we published an article claiming that the video games company Rockstar Games were planning to release a version of their popular Grand Theft Auto video games series titled "Grand Theft Auto Rothbury".

We also published what we claimed would be the cover of this game, solicited comments from a family member impacted by the recent tragedy and criticised Rockstar Games for their alleged plans.

We made no attempt to check the accuracy of the story before publication and did not contact Rockstar Games prior to publishing the story. We also did not question why a best-selling and critically acclaimed fictional games series would choose to base one of their most popular games on this horrifying real crime event.

It is now accepted that there were never any plans by Rockstar Games to publish such a game and that the story was false. We apologise for publishing the story using a mock-up of the game cover, our own comments on the matter and soliciting critical comments from a grieving family member.

We unreservedly apologise to Rockstar Games and we have undertaken not to repeat the claims again. We have also agreed to pay them a substantial amount in damages which they are donating to charity.'

And a very fast settlement. They knew that they would lose in court. So settled very fast.