More heat coming down on Take-Two
by Joystiq Staff 
{ Jun 26th 2006 at 7:20PM }
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?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Blink @ Jun 26th 2006 7:38PM
It ends the day Jacko gets his saved from the clutches of death by a GTA gamer.
Izuna Drop @ Jun 26th 2006 7:41PM
This is really beating a dead horse.
Nmaster @ Jun 26th 2006 8:01PM
Or in this case a dead hooker...
funkonaut @ Jun 26th 2006 8:21PM
It'll end when people stop voting Democrats in office.
Spitzer is the biggest extortionist in the United States. He's the embodiment of socialism. The even scarier thing is that he will probably become the next Governor of New York because people don't realize just how socialist he really is. After this "interrogation," he'll easily push through an anti-video game law after he's elected.
dead_red_eyes @ Jun 26th 2006 8:28PM
"It'll end when people stop voting Democrats in office."
wow, what an ignorant thing to say.
Jedediah Johnson @ Jun 26th 2006 8:29PM
Take-Two deserves every last bit of it. Their games are becoming a embarrassment of the industry. Hopefully this can be a example to other developers who seems to relay on the "next big shock" to sell their titles.
Cage @ Jun 26th 2006 8:31PM
I think its as funny as the next guy but this is still a serious offence. You CANNOT have a scene with sex in a VIDEOGAME. Kids are the demographic. This needed to be a bigger deal than it was. And please save the rebuttals of "what about violence?". In America violence is tolerated. Porn is not (At least to kids. We have enough sexual predators.)
thegrey @ Jun 26th 2006 8:36PM
@6.
Yes you can. You can have almost anything you want in a video game. this is a free country.
Video games does not = KIDS. I believe around %50 are adults. And the game is rate M (now AO).
Geist @ Jun 26th 2006 8:51PM
Cage, I hope to god you are being sarcastic. Because if you start talking about how GTA is for kids, I will cry. I will cry for the fate of our planet.
atdt1991 @ Jun 26th 2006 8:56PM
This is so stupid. YOU HAVE TO PATCH THE GAME to find this stuff. It's not like kids could just play the game and it was there to discover. If their parents let them have such free reign over their computers as to install a sex mod, bully for them. Frankly, there's no difference between a mod that activates an undeveloped sex scene and a mod that ADDS it entirely.
Trae @ Jun 26th 2006 9:12PM
If parents are allowing their kids to play GTA they have more to worry about than a sex scene.
32_footsteps @ Jun 26th 2006 9:35PM
It only took 4 comments before we got the irrational partisanship out of the way.
Seriously, so much of this is Take-Two/Rockstar's fault. Seriously, look at the scene itself. I personally think that if it had been there from the get-go, the game still would have gotten an M rating, with the difference being that we would have been warned about it on the label. I personally suspect the AO rerating was only because the ESRB had to react in some fashion to the negative publicity.
Regardless of how you have to access it, it's on the game disc, and T2 deserves the blame for its inclusion. Really, they're the ones, through their stupid actions, that have caused the lion's share of negative publicity towards games of late. They probably should face repercussions from all that.
Jeff @ Jun 26th 2006 9:56PM
32_footsteps is right. And hey, we've got 22 stars between us, so, there you go.
Seriously, though, some of you guys act as if this is only about free speech and letting adults play what they want and blah blah blah. The fact of the matter is people - some of them just like you or me - lost MILLIONS of dollars over this mess. It's always the small-time investors that take it on the chin - the guy who's got $5,000 or $10,000 invested, only to see half his stock's value wiped out because some idiot at some company put a scene in a game that had no business being there.
You cannot do something that you know will drive down your company's stock price and then hide knowledge of it. That is fraud, and it is a crime.
Sorry, but this is just going to have to play to its logical conclusion. If you don't like it, blame Take 2. Nobody's responsible for Hot Coffee being in the game but them. They're the ones that put it there - no one else.
Intellectualdiot @ Jun 26th 2006 10:23PM
Quite frankly, I believe it was rather idiotic of R* to leave this information within the game, though that sentiment reeks of the benefit of retroactive thought. I'd reason that it isn't necessarily rare for questionable content to be left within their games, but something like this should obviously have been left in the minds of whatever team members dreamt it up. While it may be fair to suggest that R* didn't necessarily believe that this information would be uncovered from within the labyrinth that is a digital file structuring system, surely at some point it had to have crossed someone's mind that this particular mini-game carried far too strong of a detrimental backlash possibility to risk exposure at the hands of an overzealous modder.
(Unfortunately for R*, you can't pin the blame on that individual.)
However, I also find it rather deplorable that this particular mistake has become indicative (in a morally relative political outlook) of a video game industry gone awry. This hot coffee mod has resulted in the culmination of an ever pervasive argument that video games are actively contributing to the erosion of contemporary values. I suppose this was an inevitable occurance as all media finds itself careening towards this very accusation at some point in its maturation, but it certainly doesn't make this any easier to swallow. Is this situation being overblown? Of course. In a sensationalistic, media directed society, what situation isn't? But R* has only reaped what they once sewed.
Judd @ Jun 26th 2006 11:14PM
1. Let's admit it, there wouldn't be as much controversy if it wasn't a black guy having sex with a white woman. Politicians hate that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrel_Owens#Desperate_Housewives_skit_for_Monday_Night_Football
2. Nmaster you took that joke from the Daily Show skit. I know it was on this site(No offense.)
3. I know its very unhealthy on a sight like this to start a political debate, but Funkanaut you are completely wrong. Ok, I admit that I might have been speculating by saying that Hot Coffee is controversial because the guys black, but to suggest that it is because people vote democrat is much crazier. Aren't the conservatives more towards censorship? Just three hours ago I saw on the news how the president and vice president want to censor the New York Times for reporting on news that everyone knew already. And yet its only the democrats who are against the first amendment.
JD @ Jun 26th 2006 11:19PM
I don't understand the fuss about all this. It's not like somebody got killed or anything.....what's that? You can kill people in this game? Well, I guess that's okay for children to see. And you can beat up hookers for money? I guess that's okay too. Stealing cop cars? Oh yeah, that's fine.
But a SIMULATED sex act?! I should never expect to see something like that in a MATURE game.
Grow up America. It's just sex.
vrf @ Jun 26th 2006 11:28PM
Guys, if we ever want gaming respected as mature entertainment, then we have to make sure these pimple-faced little perverts who get off on low-poly sex get what's coming to them. They deserve to go down, because the crap they've flung on gaming's image is going to take some time to repair.
And Jeff is right on the money with his comment on how irresponsible this was to the investors of the company. It would be like some dirty little punk at the Apple factory sneaking porn clips onto the new ipods. It's a full-on attack against the company itself.
Ben Hobbs @ Jun 27th 2006 12:39AM
I'm sure it would have just been as easy to download some serious harcore porn as this, easier because you wouldnt have had to install porn.
The USA is losing ground in quite a few places business wise, this sort of thing is a good way to force gaming companies offshore.
Trae @ Jun 27th 2006 12:52AM
Perhaps people shouldn't invest in companies where the employees are inept? The stock market is a fragile being! Oh noes!
JD @ Jun 27th 2006 1:43AM
#16, I totally disagree. It's not like this game was called Disney's Popsicle Adventure. It was rated Mature and had a picture of a drive-by shooting and a hooker on the front of the box.
I can't believe people are shocked to find out a game with this box art might contain something offensive.
What kind of Easter Egg did you think it would have? Lollipops and ponies?
Rare Hare @ Jun 27th 2006 2:14AM
This whole thing is such a nightmare. Not just for Take Two and Rockstar, but for the gaming industry and gamers themselves. An embarassment and a nightmare.
Personally, I don't believe that a sex scene in a video game should recieve this much attention. Unfotunately, there are lot of people who believe otherwise, and the fact that the company is to blame only makes things worse.
I actually agree with 32_Footsteps. This game probably would have recieved the same old M rating, had Take Two been honest from the beginning. It definately would have raised some eyebrows, as well as controversy, but not NEARLY the amount that it has. And I believe the reason it has been so controversial is that a) it was such a surprise and b) Take Two lied about it.
Sex should NOT be as taboo as it is in the USA. It's such a natural and beautiful thing, whereas violence is unwanted and ugly. But the fact remains that it's just how our culture works. As a society, the things that tend to remain personal and behind closed doors also tend to be viewed as dirty or wrong. I guess I'll never quite understand why reproduction or pleasure is frowned upon but taking a life or causing pain is perfectly acceptable and, at times, satirical.
I love Take Two as a company. I think they've got balls. They're an important part in driving the industry forward. It's too bad they've now caused the video game industry to take a step back which will take years to recover from.
JJ @ Jun 27th 2006 6:52AM
I really dont see the problem, i mean it s alot ... a LOT easier to download hardcore porn from the internet of REAL people... than to hack this game.
but of course a game with blocky square cartoonish people having sex is so wrong...but hey a kid getting online and downloading episodes of bangbus? Quite alright.
Bottom line, politicians, democratic/republican or otherwise need to take a nice long look at the bigger picture and NOT what will get their names in the paper.
Martin @ Jun 27th 2006 7:07AM
@#4. You have it wrong. It is the republicans that are against the first amendment, but they are all for the 2nd ammendment. It has nothing to do with Democrats in office!!! Just because 1 or 2 join in on the Republicans you can't move the blame to them...
Staticneuron @ Jun 27th 2006 7:09AM
Maybe take two didnt have the time. Or maybe it wasn't easy to take the scene out the game entirely. This is most likely the hardened truth. Take 2 most likely didn't dsclose it because it is not accessable through the game. You have to get an a device that will allow you to hack the contents of the disk and you have to patch the game on the PC. Yes, there should be some more responsibilty on the part of developers but this situation is now getting out of hand. The question of which is worse violence or porn, in consideration of how adult and serious the game is, really doesn't need to be asked.This game allows you to go overboard with the violence and promotes the most baseless and hardened actions. In each of the games you are technically a bad guy doing very bad things. So in one hand take two should own up to what it did, yet at the same time this shouldn't be as serious as it has become.
Gary @ Jun 27th 2006 9:22AM
The game was rated "M" from the beginning. The original label was wrong because it didn't list whatever you'd call the hot coffee mod in the laundry list of mature material. God of War listed it's naughty bits and Sony is, as a result, doing just fine.
It has always been an issue about proper labeling. Because the intended audience for San Andreas would have been of the same age category with or without hot coffee, I truly loathe the political leeches and grandstanders using this game as a springboard to rally a bunch of narrow minded nuts and try to further their agendas.
If the "too hot for theaters" unrated version of some lame teenage movie failed to list bare mammaries or simulated copulation, I doubt the reaction would've been the same.
Our nation's children face an immensely larger threat from uneducated parents and the politicians who want to take their place.
funkonaut @ Jun 27th 2006 9:28AM
If you think Republicans are pro-censorship, then you need to pay more attention, read more, and realize that you're brainwashed. It's so sad that so many people are so easily fleeced.
JJ @ Jun 27th 2006 10:08AM
We can not turn this into a Democrat/Republican thing please? THere's badguys on BOTH sides of the fence. You cant just blame something on a party because of the actions of a few
(and the reason Republicans get blamed a lot for things nowadays is because they're the ones in power in both the senate and House right now i do believe).
irregardless politicians as a whole can be bad...thats why i'm independent. Only way to go, vote for the best guy for the job, party be darned.
doubtful @ Jun 27th 2006 10:41AM
This isn't about politics, it's about greed. The sharks smell blood in the water, and they're going to squeeze Take 2 for everything they can. Classic, truly American, litigious greed.
32_Footsteps @ Jun 27th 2006 11:38AM
"Maybe take two didnt have the time. Or maybe it wasn't easy to take the scene out the game entirely."
Actually, we have an answer to this. It took roughly a month between when Rockstar finally admitted to the scene and the creation of the fix that made the scene in question inaccessible. If they had spent this month in development (presuming it would have taken that long, given they wouldn't have needed to switch gears if they had done it at the time), it would have come out around mid- to late-November 2004, which would have still been prime time for Rockstar to sell copies of the game. Moreover, given how little time it took, it obviously wouldn't have been all that difficult to remove.
I don't know why people are in a rush to try and esculpate Rockstar here. So much of this is entirely their fault.
Judd @ Jun 27th 2006 2:04PM
Nice metaphor, doubtful.
Clayton @ Jul 11th 2006 5:28AM
People, how is this going to hurt the gaming industry in any way? Wasn't Mortal Kombat supposed to be the ultimate downfall of our youth? Weren't people lobbying to remove violence from video games? The most that's going to happen is people are going to make a big fuss for a bit, no laws will pass and eventually people will forget about it. Futre GTAs will still be made, probably more risque and violent. And best of all, no one will complain anymore because America has a 10 second attention span.
reddt @ Jul 17th 2006 9:03AM
sent a good movie