Are you triggered by GTA 6's giant Paris advert?

GTA 6 is now big enough to swallow entire buildings, but the huge ad wrapped around one of the Les Mercuriales towers in Bagnolet, Paris, has a design problem. The guns have been removed from the illustration, even though the game and series famously feature lots of guns.

The banner recreates Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto VI cover art, with Lucia and Jason front and centre and joins the growing marketing campaign that started in earnest with yesterday's GTA 6 launch trailer. Look closely, though, and two weapons have vanished: the pistol Lucia holds in the original, and an assault rifle in another panel. Kotaku spotted the changes after fans started comparing the finished banner with the official image (X user Rockstar Mags had been following the ad's creation and took photos).

On paper, removing a gun from an image sounds like a five-minute job. In practice, it leaves Lucia with no pistol and no hand to hold it, and the character in the lower image with an arm thrust into thin air, as if they’ve just spotted a particularly interesting cloud, so a canny zoom has solved the problem.

But these guns aren’t background clutter for GTA 6; Rockstar’s art centres on its characters, their poses, and what they’re holding, and the weapons give those silhouettes attitude and tell us a little about who they are and what we can expect from the game. Take them out and the balance tips, leaving gestures that no longer quite make sense. It's a similar, though perhaps less dramatic, edit that made Amazon's shockingly bad James Bond posters so appalling by removing Bond's famous pistol.

No guns, no problem

It’s a handy reminder of how tricky it is to adapt key art for different spaces. An image designed for game boxes, websites, and trailers won’t always hold up when blown up across the side of a building, especially when bits have to be cut out because locals don't want a 30ft gun staring down at them as they pop out for a croissant.

Other GTA 6 murals in the US reportedly keep their weapons, so this looks like a Paris-only tweak for the local area, which also shows how aware Rockstar is of the impact its campaign can have. I get the feeling Rockstar doesn't want to start culture-war fires this time and wants people to focus on the game.

That said, it’s a strange compromise for a game defined by crime, chaos and bad behaviour. A gun-free GTA is a bit like advertising a racing game without the cars, or James Bond without a Walther PPK. And once you’ve spotted those empty hands, you can’t stop looking for them.

Ian Dean is Editor, Digital Arts & 3D at Creative Bloq, and the former editor of many leading magazines. These titles included ImagineFX, 3D World and video game titles Play and Official PlayStation Magazine. Ian launched Xbox magazine X360 and edited PlayStation World. For Creative Bloq, Ian combines his experiences to bring the latest news on digital art, VFX and video games and tech, and in his spare time he doodles in Procreate, ArtRage, and Rebelle while finding time to play Xbox and PS5.