The Broadcasting Advertising Clearance Centre said the ads for the game 'Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' had been given the automatic requirement that they should not be advertised around programmes made specifically for children.
There was also a warning to television companies for sensitive scheduling due to the fact that the game is only available for adults to buy.
'Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' comes with warnings of "blood and gore", "intense violence" and "use of drugs".
It features a level called "Kill all the Haitians" and another where players are asked to destroy a police SWAT team tank, gun down rival gang members and incinerate employees of a rival crack dealer.
In the US, a 16-year old boy has said a version of the game inspired him to murder three Fayette, Alabama, police officers. Killings such as this has led to calls for bans because the games industry can not stop underage players picking up the game.
However, 'Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' is one of the world's fastest selling and most successful series of videogames.
One execution of an ad showed scenes of either violent or anti-social crime, including spraying graffitti and the loading and use of guns in drive-by shootings.
Viewers complained that featuring such footage before 9pm was not acceptable because large numbers of children were likely to be watching.
Two complainants who saw the second version mentioned the Channel 4 programme 'Scrapheap Challenge', broadcast at 6.30pm, which they had been watching with their children, aged up to approximately seven years.
The ASA said: "We could understand the parents' concerns that it was inappropriate for young children to see this level of violence in advertising for a product, which was only available to adults."
The watchdog added that the ads were shown in breaks around programmes which, although not designed specifically for children, were considered to be acceptable family viewing. "To reduce the likelihood that young children would see the ads, we required that any future broadcasts of either should be limited to after 9pm," the watchdog said.
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