GTA maker coughs up $20m for 'hot coffee' sex
Grand Theft Auto Rumpy Pumpy
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Take-Two Interactive will shuffle $20 million out the door to make its "hot coffee" headaches go away.
The game publisher said Wednesday it has settled a longstanding class-action shareholder lawsuit over an infamous sex scene squirreled away in the code of Grand Theft Auto: San Andres. Take-Two will stuff $20,115,000 into a settlement fund for members of the class-action suit. The company's insurance carriers will pay $15,200,000 of the settlement, and Take-Two will foot the rest.
The lawsuit stems from a normally inaccessible sex minigame in GTA:SA that's initiated when the game's protagonist is invited into his girlfriend's house for a cup of "hot coffee." Said offer of joe inevitably leads to a somewhat explicit virtual bootknocking, which beget several years of angry parents, grandstanding politicians, and disgruntled shareholders.
While the sex minigame itself cannot be activated in the game proper, a hack to unlock the scene was discovered and circulated on the net in the summer of 2005, nearly a year after the game was released. When word of the blue content spread, Take-Two first claimed it was created entirely by hackers – only later to admit the scene had inadvertently been left in the game's code by its developers at Rockstar Games.
The subsequent uproar over a sex scene (hidden within the notoriously violent video game) led to the Entertainment Software Rating Board revoking the game's "M for Mature" rating and slapping it with an "Adults Only" score – a kiss of death in the US market. The game watchdog then declared game makers would henceforth be required to document all hidden and inaccessible content during the ratings process.
Take-Two then spent tens of millions of dollars pulling existing copies off store shelves and replacing them with "hot coffee"-free versions. The recall loss lead to Take-Two's stock plunging, prompting investors to sue over the company's questionable statements made during the outbreak of the controversy.
"We are pleased to have reached this settlement, which represents another important step forward for the Company," said Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick, in a statement.
In addition to more class-action lawsuits hounding Take-Two to this day, the "hot coffee" scandal also served as a platform for politicians like Hillary Clinton and Joe Lieberman to propose legislation that would regulate the sale of mature games to minors.
So remember, kids: Always stick to nicking cars and popping caps in innocent pedestrians. Sex is about $20m too expensive. ®
COMMENTS
last word
Re: AC
> Read the bloody article. This has relatively little to do with the UK.
> I'll also remind you where the Bible belt is located.
Umm you may not look so stupid and get the UK reference if you read more than the headline of my comment. As for the bible belt yes us free thinkers are painly aware where it is as its ignorance gives us things like liquor out of mason jars that makes you go blind, marrying your 13 yo cousin is socially acceptable, and Republican leaders that believe god wants them to be president.
Re: EvilGav 1 - umm with a name like puritans do you think they were hippies? Do your own history search (or read Nathaniel Hawthorne) and see just how f__ked up these people were. As shown by the witch hunt at Salem they were not real tolerant of basically anything (friggin USA still home of witch hunts, sigh). In addition there are stories of how they were so "holy" they has sex with their wives with a sheet between the lovers so as not to see naked bodies (and probably to keep the woman from enjoying it). Also they were psycho christians (they left England cause it was too catholic), the catholics didn't come until later at which time they were abused badly (public school system was started in America to force Catholic kids to go to basically Protestant religious schools, again ty europe for the religious hatred).
@Alex 32 - I will give you the other early group of people that came to America was the got to make a million it doesn't matter who dies crowd at Jamestown. We also still have plenty of those types in America as well (a strong argument could be made for Take Two itself lol). As again as Americans too often do I am discounting the Native Americas but the topic is not casinos so it should be ok (jk jk bad joke).
@F1reman - America has many catholics but we are the ultimate example of a conservative protestant country (only english speaking country even close to as right wing as us is Australia).
Why does nobody find out the details?
Probably because it's more fun discussing it with the knee jerk minimal facts. :-P
But seriously though, despite everyone getting all heated up about peoples morals and the prudishness of various slices of modern society, the details of this event are much more banal. This class action isn't about the fact that the scenes were in there but that the directors of Take Two knew they were in there but due to financial problems and wanting to get sales rolling they pushed for the release with it hidden hoping that no one would find it. That part comes under the engaging in false advertising and damaging company reputation bits. Then when the truth came out they lied about not knowing about it and tried to blame it on first malicious hackers then on the Rockstar developers. Meanwhile they were inside trading on their own stock the whole time and making extra money. Plus they added in issues with stock options being inappropriately valued to the advantage of the directors.
Both versions are fun, just to different people.
Mine's the one with the stock options in the pocket??
Sex scene? In America?
OK, try the pr0n sites on internet. Hosted in Scotland? I think not.
After all, all of us reading this are the product of a sex-scene.
Bloody stupid Merkan God-botherers. Where's Adolf when we need him most?
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