Oct 29, 2007
An EA producer has said that Rockstar "spazzed out like little babies" in reaction to the GTA parody in The Simpsons Game.
The comedy spoof level, titled Grand Theft Scratchy, didn't go down too well with GTA publisher Rockstar, who forced EA to rename the level; now called the not-so-clever 'Mob Rules' stage.
Speaking on GameTrailer's Game Head program, Simpsons executive producer Matt Selman explained where the controversy began:
"The game begins with Bart wanting to play a game called Grand Theft Scratchy. Of course this is a parody of Grand Theft Auto. And Marge immediately takes it away from him. She tries to clean up the town and stop the game from being distributed in Springfield because Marge is against video game violence. She uses horrific violence to stop video game violence... in a video game."
He then added: "That's called irony. The people who make Grand Theft Auto - they spazzed out like little babies."
Senior producer Matt Warburton then stepped in to say: "They're supposed to be rockstars; that's not a big Rockstar move - to be afraid of The Simpsons making fun of their game," reports GamePolitics.
The Simpsons lead designer Greg Rizzerpreviously stated: "I was always under the impression that when you do parody, it's a sign of respect... If we make fun of Grand Theft Auto, we're not going to hurt the sales of Grand Theft Auto..."
