The latest game in the Grand Theft Auto series of video games, GTA: IV has varied age restriction rules in different world nations.

Grand Theft Auto is known for its sex, violence and general crime, however some film classification boards have decided to award the game a lenient age restriction ruling.

The ninth game in the series will be sold to fifteen year olds in Australia, where as in Britain the game is restricted to under eighteen year olds. In countries where ratings from the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) are used the game will be restricted to under seventeen's.

In Britain ESRB ratings are used, except in extreme cases, where the game is then reviewed for content by the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification), normally games that are restricted to under fifteens and nearly always eighteens have been reviewed by the BBFC as offered to ESRB.

The Australian version of the game was edited before classification which is probably why it obtained a Mature 15+ rating, when a RockStar spokesman was asked what had been edited/ taken out of the game he did not comment, however it was revealed that the Australian edited version of the game would also be released in New Zealand, instead of the unedited BBFC 18/ Mature 18+, although the New Zealand classification board decided to keep the edited version as an eighteen and above restricted game.

Grand Theft Auto: IV will be released on the 29th April world wide in 720p high definition on Blu-Ray and Dual Layer DVD, a type of DVD with higher capacity (8.5GB). The game will of course not be released on HD-DVD as the principle backer of the technology, Toshiba pulled all backing which ended HD-DVD as a choice for high definition media format, which led to the HD-DVD Promotion Group being dissolved in early 2008.  

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