San Andreas given a AO rating, pulled from shelves

[KustmAce]

Story

By RON HARRIS, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 36 minutes ago

SAN FRANCISCO - The video game industry's decision to give an adults-only rating to the best-selling "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" because of explicit sexual content could signal the start of a crackdown on raunchy games.

The rating change followed intense pressure from politicians and media watch groups. Retailers reacted swiftly — Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp. and Best Buy Co. said Wednesday they would pull all copies from their store shelves nationwide.

Rockstar Games, the producer of "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," said it has stopped making the current version of the game, which includes graphic sex scenes that can be unlocked with an Internet download. The game was released in October with an "M" rating, for players 17 and older.

Sen. Hilary Rodham Clinton, D-New York, applauded the change but said she was disturbed the sexual content appeared on store shelves in the first place. She asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate and called on the Entertainment Software Rating Board to do more to police game content.

"Apparently the sexual material was embedded in the game. The company admitted that," Clinton said. "The fact remains that the company gamed the ratings system."

Rep. Joe Baca (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., said this week the video game industry needs a good dose of government oversight and renewed a call for a law requiring the FTC to determine if the video game industry's labeling practices are unfair or deceptive.

"Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" was last year's top console game, selling more than 5.1 million copies in the U.S., according to market analyst NPD Group. Xbox and PC versions were released last month.

Rockstar's parent company, New York-based Take Two Interactive Software Inc., acknowledged for the first time that the sex scenes were built into the retail version of the game. Company officials previously suggested that a modification created by outsiders added the scenes.

"The editing and finalization of any game is a complicated task and it's not uncommon for unused and unfinished content to remain on the disc," Take-Two spokesman Jim Ankner told The Associated Press.

In a statement, ESRB chief Patricia Vance said the sex scenes were programmed by Rockstar "to be inaccessible to the player." But she also acknowledged that the "credibility and utility" of the industry-run board's initial "M" rating had been "seriously undermined."

Rockstar said it would provide new labels to any retailer willing to keep selling the games and offer a downloadable patch to fix the sexual content in PC versions. The company also is working on a new, more secure version, to be rated "M," for mature.

A computer program known as Hot Coffee allows users to unlock the sex scenes. Such modifications — or "mods" — are wildly popular among the hardcore gaming community, and have been shown to extend the retail longevity of games. "Half-Life," for example, is still sold years after its release because of a Counter-Strike mod that allows for detailed counter-terrorist shoot'em-up action.

Take-Two president Paul Eibeler said "the decision to re-rate a game based on an unauthorized third party modification presents a new challenge for parents, the interactive entertainment industry and anyone who distributes or consumes digital content."

The Parents Television Council, one of several media watchdogs that have criticized Rockstar and the ESRB, called on the game publisher to recall the game and offer refunds.

"I tip my cap to that first step of showing responsibility," said Tim Winter, the council's executive director. "Phase two needs to be absolutely getting to the bottom of this coding issue. How did it get into that game? How did it get past the ratings board?"

Take-Two said net sales could drop by more than $50 million this quarter, and lowered its financial expectations for the year to set aside funds for returns of the games.

On one hand it serves them right for hiding AO material in a M game. But on the other hand, this will spell disaster for the game, and that sucks.

Maybe instead of going nuts over video games that "hide" content that takes a friggen expert to get unlocked, they should go after the websites you can get into with no age limit or password or anything and see vids/pics of any sort of sexual activity you can think of. Just seems like their priorities are awfully skewed.

[BlulytesTB]

How do you unlock the scenes????

[illegal_eagle187]

just go to like cheatcc.com or ign.com some cheat code website and unlock it, but thats dumb to give it that rating, oh well ill still play it and have fun, fuck hilary clinton

[eversio11]

Fucking ridiculous. The M rating already discourages under 17, do we really need to change it to one more year difference?

[gigglesnirt]

yea i heard about this too, but it wont really hurt them that much will it? most of the main copies they wanted to sell already have been sold, and if someone really wants to get a hold on a copy now it wont be hard with the internet around these days, some online stores dont even show you a rating while your buying the game, thats how i bought my naughty games back when my parents had to use their credit card.

[2strokebloke]

doesn't make a big difference if they've already ended the production run does it?
When are they going to outlaw real sex? (I mean it's not okay to show explicit FAKE sex, but the REAL thing is still okay for us to enjoy right?)

[highteknology]

i don't how how they think putting an AO rating on the game is really going to curb the energy surrounding the game. there is always ways to get around the ratings, i.e.someone like myself (21) buying the game for a younger kid. or ordering them off ebay or something.

hmmm....maybe i'll go buy a shit load of copies while i can and sell them on ebay. they could probably fetch me a pretty penny

i think it's sort of ridiculous, the whole rating thing, but in a way it helps me. i've reached the conclusion that i really won't buy a game that is rated less than Teen, unless it's a sports game. for me they are just to childish. i can see where they are trying to prevent this content from reaching little kids, but the content is pretty much the same and blatantly obvious in commercials and stuff (please don't turn this into a discussion about using sex or something like that in advertising).

as soon as i get off work i'm gonna go play my M rated version and whack some ho's.

besides, i think the only version that is unlockable is the PC one, it cant be done to the PS2 or Xbox right??

[illegal_eagle187]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,163141,00.html

thats funny that picture of joe lieberman watching them play it, you know out of the media's view, he's gettin down on that game

[jon@af]

Can't these people find better things to bitch about? " I don't want to worry about the recent child disappearances or other such things going on in the country, but I'll devote my time to ridding the country of something that I THINK is ruining childrens minds when in truth I don't give a shit about the children, I just want people to see the money that I'm paid is actually going toward something, no matter how stupid."

[Muscletang]

The only thing this will do is boost the sales of the game more. This is probably the best publicity Rockstar games could ever ask for.

Are they banning the computer version, the PS2/X-Box version, or both?

[Ace$nyper]

I hope hillary dies in the next game and yea real life wouldn't be bad either.

Banning stuff like this is just excuses for poor parenting.

[Jimster]

Because of ANIMATED sex scenes?


That's a crock of shit if ever I saw one.

[Damien]

The main thing I never understood was the age...

We allow 17 and up to buy M games and see R movies. Although, AO and NC-17 are for 18 and up. Why? Why the heck is there a whole new rating syestem for one year. It's just what Eversio said.

The sane age group could see Team America and we know what happened there. How could computer graphics be worse than puppets? Plus, they have sex on daytime shows now of days. Soap Operas are like between softcore and hardcore porn not to mention the primetime shows. We're the future, the ones the politicians are f***ing with. I swear, we need to freakin' vote so they'll start doing stuff for us to get our votes. F***ing politics...can only play they're rules.....

[goat_launcher]

[quote=KustmAce]
On one hand it serves them right for hiding AO material in a M game. But on the other hand, this will spell disaster for the game, and that sucks.

QUOTE]

Not really. Considering how long it's been out, the game has had it's main sale run. If you haven't bought it yet for PS2, that's your lazy ass fault, and if your a kid that's under 18 and has an Xbox, well that's what you get for buying an X-Box This works just like porn, ciggerettes, and alcohol - get an older person to buy it.

Hilary Clinton hasn't really done anything big - this can be comparable to when they first started putting Explicit Lyrics stickers on CD's - Big Whoop.


Karl

[blindside.AMG]

I'm surprised Best Buy decided to pull it off the shelves. I mean, you can still buy movies like Showgirls and Boogie Nights there, right? How is that any better than animated video-game sex?