As if the controversy surrounding violent content in popular video game Grand Theft Auto wasn’t enough, the RockStar Games-released title is causing an uproar of another kind with its spin-off, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas—this time for pornographic content, prompting a ratings change for the title and a potential crackdown on “iffy” video games.
Released last October with an “M” rating (for players 17 and older), the gang violence-themed game has been a steady seller in the Grand Theft Auto series, which has often been cited for containing overly violent content. A few weeks ago, independent game enthusiasts uncovered a “sexually suggestive” scene depicting mostly clothed people engaging in sexual motions that was embedded in the game and which can only be unlocked through an Internet download known as a Hot Coffee.
According to Entertainment Software Rating Board President Patricia Vance, the ratings change marks the first time in years that the board (which is similar to the Motion Picture Association of America ratings board) has changed the rating of a game that had already been released. She added that the threat of independent programmers is cause for alarm. “This is the first time that we have dealt with a third-party modification, and this raises a number of issues that we as an industry will have to deal with,” she stated.
Pressure to change the game’s rating came from Democratic senators, including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who accused RockStar Games of foul play. “Apparently the sexual material was embedded in the game. The company admitted that,” Clinton said in a statement. “The fact remains that the company gamed the ratings system.”
The origin of the controversial scene seems sketchy at best, with statements made by RockStar contradicting each other. Company spokesman Rodney Walker originally went on record as saying that the discovery of the sexually suggestive content was merely the result of overly enthusiastic fans. “An artist makes a painting, then doesn’t like the first version and paints over the canvas with a new painting, right?” he said. “That’s what happened here. Hackers on the Internet made a program that scratches the canvas to reveal an earlier draft of the game.”
But some have suggested that the raunchy content was intended to be discovered as a way of maintaining retail longevity, prompting RockStar parent company Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. to offer a different scenario. “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 Anker told the Associated Press.
Whether or not the content was intended to be accessible remains a mystery, though Vance did concede that the “credibility and utility” of the “M” rating has been “seriously undermined.”
Several retailers, including Wal-Mart., Target, Best Buy, and Circuit City Stores, subsequently pulled the title from the shelves, while RockStar has said that it has stopped making the current version of the game and would offer new labels to any retailer who still carries it. A downloadable patch that will “fix” the sexual content is also said to be in the works, as is a new, more secure version of the game to be once again rated “M.”
In the meantime, Take-Two has lowered its financial expectations for the year in expectation of returns of the title, adding that net sales could drop by more than $50 million for the quarter. The game has so far netted $924 million in revenue for RockStar, selling more than 21 million copies.
In his own statement, Take-Two President Paul Eibeler said “the decision to re-rate the game based on third-party modification presents a new challenge for parents, the interactive entertainment industry, and anyone who distributes or consumes digital content.”
