Posted on 07/21/2005 11:00:49 AM PDT by Mike Bates
The maker of the popular video game "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" has halted production of the PC version of the game and predicted millions of dollars in lost sales due to a re-rating of the title to adults only.
The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) revised the game's rating Wednesday amid a controversy over sexually explicit material in the game. The additional material is unlocked by a software modification dubbed Hot Coffee, allegedly created by hackers and readily available on the Internet.
Explicit Add-Ons
The rating revision hurts game maker Take-Two Interactive Software because stores in the U.S. won't be allowed to sell the game to anyone under 18 years old. The revised rating may also cause video game makers to spend more on increasing security in their products to avoid similar tampering with their software code.
Trouble with "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" started shortly after the PC version was released in June. Someone posted Hot Coffee on the Internet, a software modification that allowed users to play sexually explicit mini-games on the title.
The modification caused an uproar, culminating in a call by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton for increased legislation and stiffer penalties to keep violent or pornographic video games away from kids. The New York senator also prodded the ESRB to revise its mature rating on "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" to adults only, which the group did.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
"None of the sexually explicit material mentioned was in the retail version of the game."
It sounds like the content was in the game distribution, but not accessable without hacking the game.
That's likely just enough of a distinction that it caused the ESRB to switch the game over to adult only.
I suspect the ESRB really didn't like getting all the bad attention due to the foolishness of Take-Two not removing that content completely.
How to open up such things always gets out, and the information on how to do it may very well have come from one of the developers.
Not giving it an Adult Only label kind of encourages companies who want to skirt the ratings from purposfully leaving in disabled content and then leaking a hack.
I wonder if they'll remove the content to get back their old rating, but also make an Adult Only version that doesn't disable that content?
watch G4TV's "Attack of the Show" - they demonstrated in an episode last week that the 'hot coffee' mini-game is in the console version of the game. The code is not hacked.
Will they take it off the shelves?
I am 22, but perhaps I better get my copy now before they are gone from the shelves.
the hidden code is called an easter egg, and all software has them, as I don't game I can't speak to what kind of eggs are in games, but I sure there is all kinds, and they include porno
Finding out a cheat code frequently involves hacking the code and breaking the EULA.
There is a lot of bad stuff in the game, but the game is so great because you can do virtually anything...it is like real life.
Just because you can do bad things doesn't make the game itself bad.
what selling or programming??
sounds like ugly dumb fun.
I'll see about getting it.
You can get it for below 40 at Wal-Mart.
If you have a filter, your kids can get around it anyway. There is software that reveals Cyberpatrol passwords, for instance.
The important thing is to educate kids about why porn is bad.
Wrong. It starts with such an attitude, just alittle won't hurt. The the next game has a little more, etc...
Exposure to the demons of pornography is just the beginning. As a former police officer I think to make a game where one can shoot police officers ( or commit any crime ) in a reality styled game should be a felony. Shooting enemies in a simulated war ( which I think is wrong for young kids too ) is better than demonstrating a lack of respect for law enforcement in your own country.
Wonder why ghetto attitudes are making it into suburban schools, here's one big way bub.
Yeeeeahhhh! KAtana! haven't seen one yet, looking forward to it. Best melee weapon in the game, I'm told.
yes
watch g4tv (aka techtv; see g4tv.com) on cable for the "Attack of the Show" rerun from last week that shows how; requires a hack disk to be inserted first to prime the cheat code; no button combination will unlock the mini-game directly, you need the hack disk to unlock it, but the hack disk does not load the mini-game code; it's already in the console version of the game
or you could buy a really good game instead ;-)
That reminds me; they've back-tracked fixes to the PS2; the "Double Pack" version of GTA3 (which was released when they ported both GTA3 and GTA:Vice City to XBox) is based on the PC version.
Well, That was the point of the anime episode of South Park. "Parents don't care about violence as long as there are sex things to worry about".
Pirates, anyone? Aargh!
Damn, now I gotta go get a copy of it before they change it.
It is a game.
I shoot the cops in the game all the time. It doesn't mean I don't respect law enforcement. It is a game.
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