GTA San Andreas Game Makers Settle With The FTC

Mike Howes 11 Jun, 2006 at 5:18pm ET Article published in Tech

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has reported that a settlement has been reached with the companies behind the popular video game “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas”, namely Take-Two Interactive and subsidiary Rockstar Games.

When a few sections of unused code were discovered, it led to the now infamous “Hot Coffee” mod authored by Patrick Wildenborg, a Dutch gamer and a member of the modder community.

Within days of it’s release on the internet, it had the likes of Hillary Clinton calling on the FTC to launch an inquiry into the “Hot Coffee” mod; looking into how San Andreas was promoted and to whom, to determine if Take-Two was culpable in misleading the public.

Take-Two and subsidiary Rockstar Games remained largely quiet on the situation, but a representative from the company finally denied that they had anything to do with the Hot Coffee mod, saying that the mod was a development of a determined group of hackers who had gone to significant trouble to alter scenes in the official version of the game. In the meantime the game was re-rated from Mature(M) to Adults Only 18+(AO)and most major retailers pulled the PC and console versions of the game from their shelves. Take-Two eventually recalled the original game.

The main issue since has been to find out whether the original shipped copy of the game contained the modules the mod made accessible. The development of the code behind the hidden sexual part of the game, has been tracked back to Take-Two and Rockstar, which were forced to shell out almost US$25 million to re-rate and re-release the game without the “Hot Coffee” code. The FTC chastised the game companies for deceiving parents and the market. It charged them with corrupting the ESRB’s rating system, and warned that penalties of $11,000 per violation would be imposed, if the company does not comply with reporting and game ratings requirements.

“We allege that Take-Two and Rockstar’s actions undermined the industry’s own rating system and deceived consumers,” said FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection Director Lydia Parnes.

Comments

11 Jun 2006 ~ 5:51pm airbornflght That is really a load of BS to me. These parents go out and buy johny a game that says:

WARNING:
Contains Sexual Content, Adult Content, Exlicit Language, etc etc, and these idiot parents are like: "Hokay..johny wants it, so shall it be. After working at K-mart for 7 months, I thouroly realize how ****ty 90% of the parents are that are just becoming parents. I guess that would fit in before my generation, and after my parents generation, because my parents didnt let me get stuff or do anything like that. I've seen 8 year olds with cell phones. I've been trying to figure this out, and if anyone knows, wtf does an 8 year old need a cell phone for? Shouldnt they be with their parents at that age and not wondering by themselves? The rating system is meant to advise parents, and that is the only way it works, if the parents read it, and actually say: "hmm..maybe little johny doesnt need to be a gangsta and see tities when he is 8" but no, that is too much to ask. Excuse my for being so tounge in cheek, but isnt it obvious that it is the parents fault, not the game producers?
11 Jun 2006 ~ 6:44pm Leonardo That's a very broad brush. You are stereotyping parents from bad examples.
11 Jun 2006 ~ 8:16pm Medlock

Leonardo wrote:

That's a very broad brush. You are stereotyping parents from bad examples.

Yeah, but chances are the same parents that bought the kid the game in the first place are the ones that are making the biggest fuss about it. :shakehead
11 Jun 2006 ~ 8:45pm airbornflght

Leonardo wrote:

That's a very broad brush. You are stereotyping parents from bad examples.

Bad examples is absolutely correct. I know not every parent is bad, but it has come to my attention, through working at kmart and seeing thousands of people a day, conversing with them, and so on, and even just in public, that a lot of new parents just arent doing it right.

I would have people come through my line, with their kids acting in no way a decent manner, and the parents would say he is just cute, and they would do what ever the kid wants. Maybe they have forgotten that they are in charge and not the kid. They were just so out of control. And I really do blame the parents, and not the game producers for letting this game come into the hands of the kid. Because lets think about it, even if the retailer DID perhaps sell the game to a kid, which the chances of that happening arent high, but still possible. Someone still had to get the kid their in the first place. Not to mention give him the money. And if you say the kid walked there; When I was at any age upto 14, I did nothing with out my parents being there, or being supervised by another responsible adult. Now it seems that parents are more worried about themselves and doing what they want to do than taking care of their kids. Not to mention the americal mentality: "It's not my fault, it must be someonelse's."

Now, like I said, there are still good parents left in this screwed up world of ours. Few as they may be, they are left. I personally salute them for being a good parent and spanking the kid when he deserves it and not giving the kid violent games at a young age before he can comprehend it.

Now my main point is this. Why is it the game publishers fault for the boobs/sex/violence when there are several steps involving the parent, or gaurdians in order for the KID to get the game. The parent had to know that their kid had the game, and if they were to idiotic to read the MULTIPLE warnings, and remove the game from the childs posession, then I really feel sorry for the kid, because I fear that the parent(s) is/are not fit to raise that child.:sad2:
11 Jun 2006 ~ 8:51pm Leonardo

Maybe they have forgotten that they are in charge and not the kid... Now it seems that parents are more worried about themselves and doing what they want to do than taking care of their kids. Not to mention the americal mentality: "It's not my fault, it must be someonelse's."

I couldn't have said it better, my friend.
11 Jun 2006 ~ 8:52pm EMT What bothers me about this is that it isn't some cheat code, it's content that you probably have to break an EULA to access. Does it matter if the mod releaser programmed this feature or just reverse-engineered it into being run? I'm not sure how to answer that adequately myself, but it doesn't seem like people are really considering this.
11 Jun 2006 ~ 8:58pm airbornflght Yeh, half the time, mods involve rendering new textures, an modeling new contours or whatever they are called, as you can tell I am not a 3d artist.
13 Jun 2006 ~ 5:52pm TheLostSwede This is as much marketing and politics as the Half-Life 2 beta leak debacle. Both being directed masterly by the producers to reach a goal. For Rockstar, to make more $ and for Valve, to buy more time.