Game publisher and developer Take Two Interactive got into so much trouble a couple of years ago when it released the massive video game hit Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. A hacker was able to reverse engineer the game code and unlock a sex mini game. This was referred to as the Hot Coffee mod, which refers to the thinly alluded euphemism for having sex.
Take Two Interactive has contended that they should not be held liable for content that can only be unlocked using third party software or hardware. But a class action suit was still filed against the company. Recently, a settlement was arrived at that finally ended the class action lawsuit.
In the proposed settlement, Take Two will either give a replacement disc that does not have the sex mini game or else give $35 to consumers who are able to meet the following criteria:
- The game was bought before July 20, 2004
- They were offended by the ability to unlock the Hot Coffee mod
- They would have refused to buy the game had they known about the Hot Coffee mod
- They would have returned the game had they known that it could be modded or altered
The set of criteria is, to my mind, very loose and puts Take Two at a disadvantage. How can you even prove half of those conditions? For a gamer like me though, I’d rather have the Hot Coffee mod.
Pointless lawsuit. Don’t Americans have better things to waste their time and money on than lawsuits relating to video games?
Won’t somebody think of the children.
This is an ADULT game and shouldn’t be played by kids, so who cares if some hacker modded the game to include fake sex. If your offended by bitmap titties you really shouldn’t be playing a game that allows you to shoot cops in the face.
It’s like finding a copy of a Goodfellas DVD where someone has drew boobs on De Niro then sue the movie company for allowing this to happen.
Only in America.
nonsense. im afraid this case gonna make take2 going more ‘careful’ next time. other disadvantage for gta titles lovers.
3 out of the 4 criteria sound pretty loose, yeah, but how many people still have a receipt from 2004 lying around?
It actually does have serious implications. Before if a game developer wanted to put adult content in a game but not fall foul of censors then they could do it and release the code after. e.g. Mortal Kombat was like this I believe (it was a long time ago).
Now they will have to take this into account.