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Take-Two sending out Hot Coffee settlement checks
If you went through all the trouble of traumatizing yourself by unlocking the Hot Coffee stuff in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas ... cha-ching! Take-Two, owner of publisher Rockstar, has started paying out the settlement for the class action suit filed in response to the discovery of hidden sexual content on the disc. Depending on what kind of documentation you submitted, you're due an amount between $5 and $35 -- or, for those of you who sent your first-edition discs in, a new copy of the game. Which, we'd imagine, is worth quite a bit less than $35 these days. The settlement website notes that "All those who filed claims for benefits prior to the May 16, 2008, deadline will receive those benefits prior to April 15, 2010." Which means you can start planning where that $5 is going to go right now. Perhaps a nice cup of coffee? [Via Kotaku]
Dancing, drinking and drugs: The nightclubs of GTA Gay Tony revealed
The Ballad of Gay Tony's Luis Lopez seems to have a pretty easy life. The main playable character of the Xbox-only GTA IV episode must simply deal with Liberty City's wealthiest clientele, ensuring their experience at Tony Prince's two nightclubs goes without a hitch. According to Rockstar PR, jobs will involve kicking out drug dealers, dealing with the paparazzi, and getting the appropriate pick-me-ups for the stars.Maisonette 9 and Hercules are two new locations added to the Gay Tony episode. In addition to work, you'll be able to partake in a variety of sidequests and minigames: a "familiar-feeling dance minigame," and a new game that takes place in the club bathroom with a girl. We're not entirely sure what that will entail ... but thinking about the franchise's legacy, we think you can figure it out.
Take-Two (finally) settles with investors for $20m over 'Hot Coffee' losses
Take-Two has settled a class action lawsuit filed against it way back in 2006 by investors claiming the publisher intentionally hid the infamous "Hot Coffee" content in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in order to avoid an "Adults Only" rating from the ESRB. According to the original complaint, once the content was discovered (Take-Two originally claimed it wasn't actually on the disc) the game was reclassified to "AO" and company stock dropped, costing the plaintiffs a whole lot of beans. The suit also claimed that Take-Two provided misleading investor guidance, leading to more plaintiff losses.According to Take-Two, class members will receive a share of a $20.1 million settlement. (Investors had originally demanded a jury trial and an undisclosed amount to cover their losses, attorney fees, etc.) In a prepared statement, Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick said, "We are pleased to have reached this settlement, which represents another important step forward for the Company." Not as pleased as the plaintiffs are, we bet.[Image credit: Kanko]
EGM interviews Hot Coffee modder after cooling
Turns out the April issue of EGM isn't a total joke, there's actually a nice follow-up with Patrick Wildenborg, the man who discovered and unlocked Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' Hot Coffee. GamePolitics relays the info and provides links to scans of the article. Wildenborg, a 38-year-old software engineer from the land of the Dutch, confesses that despite the upheaval his little mod caused in the industry and his life he hasn't seen any long-term benefits from the situation.Wildenborg is still proud of discovering the Hot Coffee code due to the research it took, but believes if it wasn't him, it would have been found by somebody else who knew what they were doing. He also doesn't blame Rockstar for its initial reaction of blaming modders for creating the code the company had actually left in the game, but thinks the company should have handled the situation differently from the start. Wildenborg is getting ready to explore the code of GTA IV when it releases, but doubts he'll find something like Hot Coffee again.
Rockstar already expects controversy over GTA IV
While it doesn't take a soothsayer to guess that Grand Theft Auto IV is going to make quite a splash in the pool of a number of family watchdog organizations when it's released upon the world come April 29 -- Dan Houser, Rockstar's VP and writer for GTA IV, recently said in an interview with Yahoo! News that he expects the fumes of controversy to waft especially thick and heavy over this particular chapter in the GTA franchise.Why, you might ask? What could be worse than territorial gang violence, drug trafficking, or poorly rendered depictions of consensual sex between two adults? Houser explains -- the studio will definitely be hearing about certain gameplay elements, such as drunk driving, and the inclusion of current-gen advancements in video game strip club technology. Well, duh -- if a space marine and his azure-skinned concubine can't tastefully bump uglies without a media explosion, we doubt an in-game visit to The Booby Trap will be overlooked.
Take-Two details 'Hot Coffee' settlement; no receipt necessary
Were you one of the "offended and upset" victims of Rockstar's infamous "Hot Coffee" scandal? Can you prove to some lawyers that you were traumatized by the insidious insertion of polygonal sexual activity into your violent killing sprees? If so, you'll be interested in Take-Two's recently erected website detailing the benefits of its Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas class action settlement.The settlement offers different levels of possible compensation depending on the proof violated consumers have to offer: An original, pre-scandal copy of the game "may" net you a neutered replacement disc; a detailed store receipt "may" result in a $35 cash payment; a credit card statement or check is worth $17.50; and a disc without receipt gets you $10. If you have no receipt and no game, you stand to earn a whopping $5 for promising under penalty of perjury, cross your heart and hope to die, that you at one point purchased and played the offending game. If you're not planning on using the bill to dry your post-traumatic tears, perhaps you could put it towards Grand Theft Auto IV on April 29th.
Hot Coffee-hunt 2
The media nonsense surrounding Manhunt 2 has only begun. Get ready for another year or so of shrill news reports, protests, boycotts, "experts," and, of course, Jack. Time to start defending your medium or ignoring everybody!What's going to set off this new round of controversy? Just about a day after release, hackers have figured out how to unlock the censored material in the PS2 and PSP versions of Manhunt 2. The original kill sequences, rather than being removed from the game's code, were left on the disc. If the code's on the other versions of the disc, it's on the Wii version as well. That means that a tiny, tiny portion of this game's audience will have access to adults-only content!Will Rockstar ever learn? Or have they learned? This controversy may get the game re-rated and re-edited, but copies will fly off the shelves in the meantime. Check after the break for a video comparison of Manhunt with both censored and uncensored Manhunt 2 content. Adults Only and all that, of course!
Censored Manhunt 2 content sprung
Wanna play Manhunt 2 the ways it's supposed to be played? Simple, just delete the "replace original file" scripts in the game code. A group of hackers allege to have done just that, altering the PSP game file and 'unlocking' the otherwise filtered gore. It's not quite on the scale of Hot Coffee -- remember kids, explicit sex is much worse than gratuitous violence -- but this latest scandal (call it "Hot Pliers") could become just as overblown, despite the hack being currently limited to the portable version of Manhunt and requiring a homebrew-enabled PSP, along with some basic ISO manipulation. Quick! Hide your PSPs before the grownups burn them![Via PSP Fanboy]
Video Game Decency Act: saving the children, or one-way ticket to tyranny?
As Congressman Fred Upton's Video Game Decency Act continues to percolate through Congress, Upton (R-MI) is singing its praises to the press, telling his local paper, the Niles Daily Star, "This legislation will restore parents' trust in a system in which game makers had intentionally deceived the ratings board to deliver violent and pornographic material to our kids."This whole foofaraw kicked off when Rockstar Games tucked away some sex-related gameplay into Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and, while the content was only accessible by using hacking tools, it was there for the minigaming. When word got out, lawsuits flowed like coffee, and Rockstar rushed out a "clean" version in order to avoid the dreaded "Adults Only" rating. The Video Game Decency Act would make it a crime to hide such content from the ESRB, the independent ratings board created by the industry in 1994 to avoid federal regulation.Seems pretty reasonable, right? Well, it is. Whether you believe all sexual content deserves an "AO" rating or not, developers who want a rating from the ESRB should fully disclose anything that might affect that rating. But if the bill passes, the government will finally have its paws in the game rating pie, in a very official (and probably irreversible) way -- exactly what the ESRB was founded to prevent. Fine by you? Or is this the next step on a slippery slope of governmental control that will end with a dystopian, 1984-style wasteland?[Via GamePolitics]
Brits ban 'old' Xbox 360 commercial
The same Xbox 360 commercial we posted last November improbably showing the release date for Halo 3 has been banned in England. The Advertising Standards Agency says the advertisement "could be seen to condone dangerous driving," despite the prominent text stating "Dramatisation. Professional stunt. Do not attempt." Apparently ad agency McCann Erickson worked closely with the ASA and were given clearance to run the ad after 9 PM. The ASA decided to ban the ad anyway stating it "reinforced the sense that the events were real, rather than fantasy, and were therefore capable of being copied." Sorry England, looks like you're just going to have to watch the ad over, and over, and over again here on Joystiq ... what a shame.The Reuters story doesn't say how long the advertisement was in circulation, but like we said, it's been on our radar since last November. If it's been in rotation in England since that time, bless the ASA, they just gave that little commercial a second life through controversy. This isn't the first time we've seen this sort of odd behavior. Boston's transit authority banned ads for M rated games after a minor Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories controversy. The thing was that nobody raised a fuss a year prior when Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories ads were all over the same system.
Rock the vote with legislative measures in 2007
Like a certain caffeinated beverage prepared from delicious roasted beans, video game legislation was hot in 2006. Whether it was hidden whoopie in your Grand Theft Auto or ambulance chasers run amok, last year saw more games hitting the halls of congress than ever before.To make sure you're prepared for this years gauntlet of gaming based initiatives, 2old2play has compiled a short list of measures currently being considered in a few scattered states. Measures range from wanting stricter ratings, all the way to fining a sales clerk up to $100 bucks should they not lecture you about the content of your violent video game. Yikes.You can help out now by contributing to the list with the measures currently being proposed in your state. Regardless, be a real hardcore gamer and educate yourself on something that matters. The enemy patterns in Ikaruga will be will be there when you're done.
Another suit over GTA -- with good punchline
Under normal circumstances Grand Theft Auto lawsuits would make us yawn, but this one this one causes a yawn/chuckle, just wait for the punchline. The Philidelphia Inquirer reports that a man has filed a federal lawsuit against publisher Take-Two Interactive for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' simulated sex mod. John Robinson seeks damages because consumers weren't offered refunds for the game after the abhorrent scene was discovered. When Robinson learned of the "Hot Coffee" mod for the game, he confiscated the copy of GTA he purchased for his son ... now imagine what this child looks like in your mind's eye. Ready for the kicker? His son was 20 or 21 years-old at the time.
Capcom bringing GTA San Andreas to Japan
With controversy having cooled, Capcom has reached a deal with Rockstar to localize, publish, and distribute the PlayStation 2 version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in Japan. The release is scheduled for January, a full 27 months after the game's initial debut in North America. What's with the delay? Guess car jacking and gang banging doesn't move units at quite the same pace in Japan.
Textbook bares all on sex in games
Brenda Brathwaite knows good game sex. The founder and chair of the International Game Developers Association Sex Special Interest Group and lead designer on Playboy: The Mansion organized the Sex in Video Games Conference this summer and schooled GameHead's Geoff Keighly on some classic sexually themed games. Now, Brathwaite has unleashed a 300-page text book on the subject, titled, appropriately enough, Sex in Video Games.This book is long, thick and certainly knows what it's doing. From the history of sex, positive inclusion and censorship, to emergent sex and sex across cultures, it's a comprehensive reference of some of the more social aspects of our tech-heavy industry.Certainly one of the most interesting chapters in the book is the 20-page chronology and analysis of the Hot Coffee incident. The book covers everything from the initial discovery to the modest investigation and finally the full-blown media circus with interviews with the original hot coffee modder Patrick Wildenborg and MIT Prof. Henry Jenkins.It is great to see an academic textbook showing it all off regarding this taboo subject. After all, as Brathwaite says, "games are not just for kids."
Heads up: Saints Row luke-warm coffee
This proudly immature Saints Row footage should be enough to get Monica Lewinsky excited, if not Hillary Clinton. Warning: Not safe for work, clueless government regulators, or uptight post nannies.[Blame Drew]
More heat coming down on Take-Two
Just when you thought this whole "Hot Coffee" mess was behind us, Take Two has been hit with more litigation. According to the Associated Press, Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. received two subpoenas from the Manhattan district attorney today over the Hot Coffee incident in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The story goes on to say:"The documents subpoenaed date back to October 2001, and are connected to whether company officers and directors had direct knowledge of the secret scenes, commonly referred to as "Hot Coffee." The district attorney was also seeking compensation documents linked to current and former officers and directors as well as information about acquisitions in 2005, partnering arrangements and earnings results."Even once they are done in New York, Take Two is still facing possible action in North Carolina and Connecticut over the same steamy issue. Will it ever end folks?
ESRB: Lie to us, pay up to $1 million in fines
ESRB President Patricia Vance on Wednesday testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection about informing parents about (and protecting children from) violent and explicit video games. In her testimony, Vance showed off the ESRB's war chest of available actions for penalizing publishers. The armaments include: Fines of up to $1 million for the "most egregious offenses" Suspension of publisher's access to the ratings system. Similar to the government ratings system in Australia, titles without rating usually do not get shelf space on retail stores. In addition, publishers can be forced to Pull advertising until the ratings information is corrected Correct the ratings with stickers placed on the package Recall the game To what extent the ESRB will use these tactics is uncertain. Vance's testimony (download the PDF here) was meant to soothe the government's concerns that kids being traumatized by a values-destroying games industry. When another publisher tries to swindle the ratings board, how harsh is the ESRB willing to punish the violator?See Also:Tepid Coffee: Take-Two gets foreboding slap on wrist by FTC
Penny Arcade creating ESRB ad campaign
With an angry mob of politicians and parents (and pareticians) waving their pitchforks and torches at the ESRB's front door these days, launching a new ad campaign might be a wise move -- at least a good deal wiser than dumping gallons of hot oil on your detractors. The powers that be at the ratings board have tapped none other than the Penny Arcade crew to create a new marketing initiative aimed specifically at gamers, one that hopes to illustrate the importance of those letters you may have glimpsed on American game covers.Thanks to the involvement of people who have actually played games before, it's a safe conclusion that we'll be spared from the usual in-your-face X-treme to the max gamer representatives that only exist in the minds of ill-informed marketing types. Instead, Gabe and Tycho have spent the last few months creating a series of characters, each one being paired with one of the ESRB ratings. As you might have expected, Tycho has already written short narratives for all the characters that explain just how the ESRB impacts upon their lives. These will no doubt be filled with words too gigantinormonomical to comprehend.Though some teaser images were already shown at E3, Penny Arcade says that the full campaign will be invading magazines and websites very soon. We're hoping that 'ole DivX machine will be teaching us the ins and outs of the M-rating.
Hidden boobies incite Oblivion rating change [update 1]
The ESRB has changed the rating of the PC version of Oblivion from T (Teen) to M (Mature). The ratings board enacted the change because the game contains stronger depictions of violence than what were featured in the content that was submitted to determine the original rating. But more importantly, the new M-rating is a result of hidden (archived) topless skin files that can be accessed via a fan-created mod.At this time, it's unclear if a recall will be issued, but the new rating, along with the addition of a "nudity" warning, will be applied to copies of Oblivion that are still on store shelves. It's also possible that Take-Two will force Bethesda to remove the archived files and re-release the game, in turn, regaining the T-rating.Update: the Xbox 360 version has also been re-rated to M due to "Blood and Gore, Language, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violence" [via ESRB]. [Thanks, Scott]
Eidos cools coffee, de-nipples Tomb Raider
The left half of the above pic is a nipple-licious stripper skin from the European PC version of Tomb Raider: Legend that Xboxic (post not entirely safe from work) speculates might be responsible for possibly delaying the April 11 U.S. release of the game. The right half is the same skin after applying an areola-erasing patch. Eidos denies that the U.S game has been delayed, but our fellow bloggers have provided pretty solid proof that Legend was indeed smuggling raisins overseas. Is Eidos performing a last minute emergency nipplectomy on the U.S. PC and 360 versions to spare American kids the horror of seeing something they used to suck on everyday—narrowly avoiding the next Hot Coffee scandal? Will Senator Cankles and her Fundie bedfellows be able to sleep at night knowing they missed an opportunity to further demagogue games as pixelated pornography? Only Lara knows for sure, and she's keeping her shirt on.(I swear this is the last breast-related post for a while.)
