The official trailer for the PS4 version of Grand Theft Auto V has dropped, check it out.

TARGET Australia will pull popular R-rated video game Grand Theft Auto V (GTA5) from its shelves after an online petition slammed the game for encouraging players to “commit sexual violence and kill women”.

The petition, authored by former sex workers, has so far attracted almost 40,000 signatures.

It says the “sickening game” encourages players to kill prostitutes and calls on Target to stop selling it.

“Games like this are grooming yet another generation of boys to tolerate violence against women,” the petition said.

General manager of corporate affairs Jim Cooper said Target would no longer sell the game.

“We’ve been speaking to many customers over recent days about the game, and there is a significant level of concern about the game’s content,” he said in a statement.

“We’ve also had customer feedback in support of us selling the game, and we respect their perspective on the issue.

“However, we feel the decision to stop selling GTA5 is in line with the majority view of our customers.”

Mr Cooper said Target would continue to sell other R-rated DVDs and games.

“While these products often contain imagery that some customers find offensive, in the vast majority of cases, we believe they are appropriate products for us to sell to adult customers,” he said.

“However, in the case of GTA5, we have listened to the strong feedback from customers that this is not a product they want us to sell.”

GTA5 is an award-winning game which set a sales record for entertainment products, passing the $1 billion sales mark after three days.

It came after a group of former sex workers launched a change.org petition to remove the game from the popular department store because it provides an incentive to commit sexual violence against women.

One of the petitioners, who has asked to be referred to only as Nicole for fear of further reprisals from the gaming community, said GTA5 had “upped the ante” on previous titles because it allowed gamers to play in first-person mode. This perspective allows players to visit strip clubs, have graphic sex with prostitutes, kill and maim people, and run over pedestrians, all with striking realism.

Nicole said the most dangerous part of the game, which was released for the next-generation PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles last month, was the ability for players to pay for simulated sex with a prostitute and then get their money back by killing the woman.

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In one video online, which has been viewed more than 170,000 times, a player demonstrates how to have sex with the prostitute in a car and then run her over, set her on fire and shoot her repeatedly.

Nicole, of Perth, argues that exposure to this type content changes players’ brains and makes them more likely to engage in violence against women.

“They have upped the ante with it being first-person. You get to feel what it feels like to do this to somebody,” she said.

“To think the reward centre in their brain is aroused is disturbing.

“People say, ‘You are a prude, you want to ruin my fun’, but this is about torturing and the ritualised murder of women … It’s frightening that people are desensitised to it.”

Nicole, who was a victim of violence when she worked as a prostitute, said this glorification of violence was particularly traumatic.

“It is exceptionally triggering for survivors, to see it advertised on buses and to go into businesses and see it on the shelves,” she said.

Nicole said the petitioners decided to focus on Target, as opposed to all shops that stock GTA5, because it was a large business that cut across all demographics.

New Zealand’s largest retailer, NZ Warehouse Group, removed the games from sale because it didn’t fit with its brand.

“They were willing to take the risk,” Nicole said. “The business has not collapsed. In fact, they have been praised for it.

“It could be a really uplifting thing for Target to do.”

Detractors also say that the game is equally violent towards men, but Nicole said this argument didn’t hold water because the vast majority of sexual crimes were committed against women.

“This is the argument we hear every time violence against women is mentioned. Even on White Ribbon Day, there are cries of ‘But it happens to men, too’.

“In this case, the male gamers are saying they don’t mind violence against themselves in this game. Implicit in this is the recognition that if men don’t mind, then women have to put up with it.

“This is hardly a gender-neutral argument. Implicit in it is the very misogyny we are rallying against.”

Strauss Zelnick, chief executive officer of the creator of the game, Take-Two Interactive, has downplayed the feature that allows gamers to have sex with and kill prostitutes.

“This is a criminal setting. It’s a gritty underworld. It is art. And I embrace that art, and it’s beautiful art, but it is gritty,” Mr Zelnick told Bloomberg.

He said Grand Theft Auto V stood “shoulder to shoulder” with movies and TV shows that explored similar criminal underworlds.

“This is a tough universe because it is a criminal universe … There are plenty of the things to do and it’s an incredibly exciting environment. But can it be rough? Absolutely,” Mr Zelnick said.

The industry has been locked in a culture war dubbed #Gamergate since August, which relates to allegations of misogyny and harassment in video game culture.

