The BBC recently aired a film of theirs called The Gamechangers. This ‘factual drama’ aimed to tell the story about Grand Theft Auto and the controversy surrounding the series around the release of San Andreas. Daniel Radcliffe starred as one of the game’s creators, Sam Houser, and Bill Paxton played the infamous Jack Thompson, the lawyer hellbent on suing Rockstar and destroying the game.
We were cautiously optimistic, but alarm bells started to ring months ago when RockStar sued the BBC for using the GTA brand without permission. It turns out that the BBC’s ‘facts’ were gathered via third-party interviews rather than direct from Rockstar or the Housers. Not long after it aired, Rockstar were quick to jump on Twitter and ask the BBC, “What exactly is this random, made up bollocks?”
Sounds like a trainwreck and exactly the sort we can’t help but watch. Good thing it’s live on the BBC iPlayer right now then for the next 25 days. The film aired as a part of the BBC’s ‘Dare to be Digital: Inspiring Digital Creativity’ season of programming and has probably done more harm than good as far as inspiring young people to look into a career in game development goes. It’s not all bad news though, the latest Horizon BBC documentary, ‘Are video games really that bad?’ is a decent watch.
Below you’ll find a link to The GameChangers on iPlayer and a trailer.
The No Sleep Gamer 