KIISQueen

LOS ANGELES — The city attorney's office has sued the makers of "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" for allegedly hiding pornographic material inside the video game, officials said.

Rocky Delgadillo said his office sued Rockstar Games and its parent company, Take Two Interactive Software Inc., for making misleading statements in marketing the game and engaging in unfair competition.

A telephone call made after business hours to a Take Two spokesman in New York was not returned.

The game, released in October 2004, features characters that commit crimes such as murder, drug dealing and pimping. The game also had an embedded "mini game" in which characters could engage in explicit sexual acts.

The industry board that rates video games gave it a mature rating but would have given it an adults-only rating if it knew of the explicit content, Delgadillo said.

The game's rating was later changed and retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp. and Best Buy Co., pulled copies from their store shelves.

But the game was re-rated only after more than 12 million units had been sold, generating about $600 million in retail sales. The city attorney's office estimated that more than 200,000 units have been sold to date in California, generating more than $10 million in retail sales.

"Businesses have an obligation to truthfully disclose the content of their products — whether in the food we eat or the entertainment we consume," Delgadillo said.

The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, was part of an ongoing investigation into the marketing of video games, authorities said. The game also spurred several states to crack down on sales of mature-rated games to minors.

Delgadillo is seeking civil penalties from Rockstar Games Take Two Interactive. He also is requesting that Take Two and Rockstar take action to ensure full disclosure to consumers about the content of their video games.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,182979,00.html

mcs328

Jack Thompson did the same thing I think and lost his license to practice in some state. Take Two has been through this before but I guess with a more rational lawyer they might take it seriously.

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Thesifer

Stuff like this just makes me want to choke the people doing the sueing.

Has anyone here actually SEEN the "Hot Coffee" Mini Game? Its retarded. Look up pictures for it sometime if you haven't seen it just to see how silly it is that anyone cares.

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welfareloser

not only that... it simply isn't accessible without modding. nobody's going to stumble on it. yes, it is physically stored on teh disc, but you have to go out and get a key for it... it's no different than your kid having to go out and download the porn itself. silly, silly, silly.

well... i guess i do see one spark of sense in it... kids know that the porn is on the disc, which is an enticement to try to go get the stuff to unlock it. so... i guess this is similar to a joe camel ad aimed at kids then again, it already had a "mature" rating... and you can legally buy porn at age 18... so what are they quibbling about here? a video game mature rating... is that for 18 and up? or is it for 15 and up?

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Cubsfan

Good point. And most of the sites I've seen that have cracks and whatnot have far worse advertisements on them. So the chances are that in order to get the crack, they had to see worse than what's in the game anyway.

I saw a video of the "hot coffee" thing. It was slightly amusing, but not quite the eye searing type of porn they make it out to be.