· City acts over explicit content buried in code
The city of Los Angeles is suing the makers of the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for hiding sex scenes in its computer code.
The game, released in 2004, is one of a series in which the player takes the role of a criminal who commits murder, deals in drugs and pimps prostitutes in a virtual Los Angeles. However, the makers, Take-Two Interactive Software, may have stepped over the line by embedding a game within a game called Hot Coffee in which the characters have explicit sex under the control of the player, who can alter position and viewpoint with a keyboard or joystick.
The Los Angeles city attorney's office has taken Take-Two to court for deceptive business practices and making false statements in marketing the game, for its failure to reveal the extent of its sexual content.
After complaints from politicians including Senator Hillary Clinton last year, the company initially said the sex game had been added by hackers, but later admitted it was written in the original code. Hackers found the code and the hidden scenes last year, broadcasting the discovery on the internet.
The US gaming industry has since changed the game's rating from "Mature 17+" to "Adults Only 18+" and several supermarkets have removed it from their shelves. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has been re-released without the explicit sex, but the Los Angeles authorities want the company to surrender the profits from an estimated 200,000 copies of the game sold under the old, less restrictive rating, and is also demanding a $2,500 fine for any false statements made by company officials about the game in the past.
More than 35 million copies of Grand Theft Auto have been sold, with global sales approaching $2bn. However, stock in Take-Two has fallen from $30 a share before the discovery of the Hot Coffee sex scenes to less than half that by the end of last week. The company has admitted the discovery of "material weaknesses" in its financial accounting and has asked for more time to file an annual report.
The company has not issued a statement since the Los Angeles city attorney took his case to court on Thursday.
Julian Borger in WashingtonMonday January 30, 2006
The Guardian
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