If you thought that the GTA "Hot-Coffee" disaster was wrapped up yesterday with the announcement of the game being
re-rated as 18+, then you were wrong. The historic event of increasing the rating of a game due to external
modification raises issues about game modding as well as retailers stocking 18+ games. If you go into any movie or even
a UK game store, you'll see plenty of movies and games that are rated as 18+ with content as bad or worse than the GTA
series. Why should games be unfairly penalized?
This article asks id Software's Todd Hollenshead, CEO of Running With Scissors (Postal creator) Vince Desi and the CEO
of 3000AD Derek Smart, for their opinions of the fiasco. They generally seem to agree with the ESRB's decision to raise
the rating level, but they take issue with the retailers not selling games that are rated 18+. They also want the
Government to recognise the good things that the ESRB has done for the games industry. Hah! We should be so
lucky.
As for GTA: San Andreas, Rockstar will be sending out AO 18+ rating stickers to any retailers that want them, although
it's expected that a lot of retailers will be withdrawing the current version from store shelves (since AO rated games
are an excuse not to sell them). Rockstar will also be developing a Mature only rated game which will no doubt
be exactly the same as the original version but without the Hot Coffee data files. Damn Rockstar for making such a
great yet controversial game!
[Thanks, John]
