*The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) today announced the findings of its investigation into the “Hot Coffee” modification for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and its immediate revocation of the game’s M (Mature 17+) rating1. The game’s publisher, Rockstar Games, a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., will immediately advise retailers to cease all sales of the game until corrective actions, as mandated by the ESRB, can be taken.
“After a thorough investigation, we have concluded that sexually explicit material exists in a fully rendered, unmodified form on the final discs of all three platform versions of the game (i.e., PC CD-ROM, Xbox and PS2),” said Patricia Vance, president of the ESRB. “However, the material was programmed by Rockstar to be inaccessible to the player and they have stated that it was never intended to be made accessible. The material can only be accessed by downloading a software patch, created by an independent third party without Rockstar’s permission, which is now freely available on the internet and through console accessories. Considering the existence of the undisclosed and highly pertinent content on the final discs, compounded by the broad distribution of the third party modification, the credibility and utility of the initial ESRB rating has been seriously undermined.”*
Yeah, really, this is closing the barn door after being on vacation and coming home and then two weeks later getting a letter saying your horse got out while you were gone.
So ALL copies of San Andreas are going to be AO now? For some reason I assumed this would only affect the PC version if it came to fruition.
I guess there are a lot of happy politicians right now, they’ve been gunning for GTA for a while. It’s too bad something as lame as a cheesy sex minigame got the game this rating instead of the fact you can kill like 500 people in a wide variety of ways. The ESRB is as backwards as the MPAA. That’s not even taking into account the fact that it’s not available to gamers without using a hack(and only on the PC at that! I guess the Xbox mod is on the way).
In some weird way, this may be a good thing. GTA is one of the best selling game series of the last ten years(second only to the Sims?). I figure stores may become more lax about the taboo of AO rated games. Is AO 18 and up like an NC-17 film or is it 21 and up?
AO is 18+. The big reason for the M and AO rating is because if it was just a M rating stores would be banning M games likes theaters don’t allow NC17.
Also I believe Gamespot has reported that on the PS2 they were able to crack the code and also get into the sex minigame.
I doubt stores are going to be more lax about selling AO games (in fact I’m betting your not going to see GTA:SA for a while until they make their patches). Most stores have in store rules stating they won’t sell AO games (like theaters won’t show NC17 movies). I’m betting Rockstar will be happy about online sales though.
What I want to know, why is Rockstar claiming this is a 3rd party mod. Its in game, its not something thats been added by the third parties. Its something that was made for the game but later taken out, but not deleted.
Yeah, as mind-bogglingly stupid as this is, it might be good for the industry. And it’s a nice little wrench thrown into the gears of game companies that regulate content by refusing to sell AO-rated games.
Originally Posted by CapitanAmerica They probably did this on purpose.
this is so sad. I was at Walmart like, 2 hours ago and saw a copy available (for the first time since its release) and I was thinking “hmm… should I get this now? or should I wait for the price to go down…” I decided to wait… If i had known it had a SEX something or other… hell, I’d pay full price just to see what the fuss is about. Pull my wife over and say HEY look! animated b00bies!! so we could chuckle and she could hit the back of my head.
Oh well, I’ll just get the copy at EB when someone’s mom trades it in for a disney game.
I don’t see what all the fuss is about. Golgo 13 on NES, baby! C’mon, what do you think was happening in that penthouse suite when the lights went out? Bow-chicka-bow-wow.
Originally Posted by Chest Rockwell Apparently it’s in the PS2 version as well, though I believe it requires a few cheats to activate it.
You can activate it with an Action Replay code, though you also need to enter the cheat to unlock all the girlfriends and then go through the dates until you get invited in for “coffee”.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DerekT What I want to know, why is Rockstar claiming this is a 3rd party mod. Its in game, its not something thats been added by the third parties. Its something that was made for the game but later taken out, but not deleted.
Technically, they never claimed the Hot Coffee content was third party. They said the mod to unlock it was third party. It was clumsily worded (perhaps deliberately - Rockstar loves controversy) but they never explicitly said “we didn’t write this”.
Originally Posted by Dan Whitehead You can activate it with an Action Replay code, though you also need to enter the cheat to unlock all the girlfriends and then go through the dates until you get invited in for “coffee”. Technically, they never claimed the Hot Coffee content was third party. They said the mod to unlock it was third party. It was clumsily worded (perhaps deliberately - Rockstar loves controversy) but they never explicitly said “we didn’t write this”.
That sure as Hell isn’t what I read, Dan…
(Quote from IGN)
Patrick Wildenborg, a 36-year-old living in the Netherlands, recently told the Associated Press he was responsible for the “hot coffee” mod, which – either through simply unlocking content, or altering the game itself – allows San Andreas players to participate in explicit sexual scenes.
While Wildenbourg claims his mod only reveals what Rockstar had hidden in the game, Rockstar Games is now officially denying that it included the scenes in San Andreas, whether hidden or not.
"So far we have learned that the “hot coffee” modification is the work of a determined group of hackers who have gone to significant trouble to alter scenes in the official version of the game," reads Rockstar’s official statement. “In violation of the software user agreement, hackers created the ‘hot coffee’ modification by disassembling and then combining, recompiling and altering the game’s source code. Since the ‘hot coffee’ scenes cannot be created without intentional and significant technical modifications and reverse engineering of the game’s source code, we are currently investigating ways that we can increase the security protection of the source code and prevent the game from being altered by the ‘hot coffee’ modification.”
Rockstar says it is currently cooperating with the ESRB in investigating the source of the “hot coffee” content, and is confident that a “Mature” rating is appropriate for San Andreas. Games rated “Mature” are intended for players age 17 and older.
Rockstar’s parent company, New York-based Take Two Interactive Software Inc., also admitted for the first time that the sex scenes had been built into the retail version of that game — not just the PC version but also those written for Xbox and PlayStation2 consoles.
i guess that would only work if you have a modded xbox and the game installed on your hdd though…
now rockstar will have to fire some poor coder for “sneaking” that in… which is probably bs too…
i just wonder how they found it?.. according to the mod creator, it was a simple flip of a bit.. but finding the bit to switch was diffcult… color me curious
i really don’t see the problem if it was included or not.. i mean, you can create maps for most FP shooter games and plaster the walls with penthouse kidney shots, and overlay the audio with 900# calls… so whats the difference?
Originally Posted by Graham That sure as Hell isn’t what I read, Dan…
And they’re very careful to state that it’s the modification they’re talking about, not the content itself. They never say “unlock”, but that the scenes can only be “created” by opening up the game code. None of which is technically untrue.
I’m not arguing their case for them, just that they used deliberately vague language to muddy the waters while the lawyers did their thing.
It’s okay, kids! There’s still plenty of nice M rated games out there you can ask your parents for where you can rip a guy’s spine out through his asshole, kills cops and innocent bystanders for money, pick up hookers, and call somebody a seal-raping cuntwaffle right out of the box! Enjoy!