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Rockstar wins substantial damages over fictitious tabloid story

Daily Star claims of GTA: Rothbury "entirely false"

UK tabloid The Daily Star has been forced to pay out substantial damages to Rockstar over a false report that the company was to release a game based on the Raoul Moat manhunt.

The Daily Star pulled the story soon after publication and later issued an "unreserved apology" on the site, admitting that it had not made any attempts to check the accuracy of the title.

"The defendant now accepts that Rockstar Games never had any intention to create such a videogame at any time. The story was entirely false," Melanie Hart, Rockstar's solicitor, told a High Court judge, according to The Guardian.

The newspaper had solicited quotes from the family of Raoul Moat's victims for its report, and called Rockstar Games "questionable idiots".

As well as damages, the Daily Star will pay all legal costs.

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Matt Martin avatar
Matt Martin joined GamesIndustry in 2006 and was made editor of the site in 2008. With over ten years experience in journalism, he has written for multiple trade, consumer, contract and business-to-business publications in the games, retail and technology sectors.
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