The price of Hot Coffee? US$20 million, apparently
The Hot Coffee scandal erupted in 2005 when it was revealed that owners of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, could access sexually explicit content that was embedded in the game code. Take 2 claimed the offensive content was created by hackers who had altered the game code, but it was later revealed that the code could be found in every copy of the game on sale: Hackers had merely found a way to unlock it.
Of the US$20 million settlement sum, US$15.2 million will be paid by Take 2?s insurance company. The remainder will be carried by Take 2 itself.
The Hot Coffee scandal resulted in Grand Theft Auto being pulled from retail shelves until a new version, sans the offensive content, could be published. It has prompted changes in the way video games are rated and classified in the US ? every bit of content on a video game?s delivery medium (disc, cartridge, etc) must be disclosed and rated before it can go to market.
This is a system that is already followed by Australia?s Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC), though its effectiveness has been the subject of much debate: We do not currently have an R classification available for video games, yet games that are rated as being for ?adults only? internationally are usually passed as MA15+. Games that would warrant a rating of above MA15+ would otherwise be refused classification and therefore banned from sale in Australia.
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