Grand Theft Auto sex scandal devastates influential videogame developer
Tom Bukowski
Issue date: 9/1/05 Section: Entertainment
|
The mini-game, titled "Hot Coffee," is an explicit sex scene. It has your on-screen character Carl Johnson taking his girlfriend to his house, where they engage in sexual intercourse. You have the ability to change positions at the press of a button and the main goal is to completely fill an 'excitement meter' to 'win'.
Although this is hardly the first videogame to contain a playable sex-scene (see the Atari's "Custer's Revenge" and last year's excellent "God of War"), this is the first time there has ever been an on-screen sex scene with realistic, fully realized graphics hidden in a mainstream videogame release.
Though the mini-game is indeed explicit, it's ultimately entirely silly - your onscreen character yells out embarrassing one-liners during the act and at least one of the onscreen characters is fully clothed. The scene is more reminiscent of mashing up genitalia-free Ken and Barbie dolls together than an episode of "Sex in the City."
To the long-time video gamer, "Hot Coffee" may not be very shocking; this is the generation that has successfully removed the blur from "The Sims" and controlled certain body parts using their controller's joy sticks ("God of War"), after all. What makes the "Hot Coffee" discovery the most controversial moment of the summer is the set of circumstances surrounding the game's developer's actions involving the matter.
When an investigation by the ESRB (the videogame ratings-board) revealed that the sex mini-game was accessible in the Playstation 2 and Xbox versions of the game, they slapped the game with 'Adults Only' rating - equivalent to the movie rating of "NC-17." Best Buy, Target, and Circuit City immediately pulled the game off the shelves due to their policy of not selling 'Adults Only' rated videogames. Rockstar must now release a new version of "San Andreas" that does not contain the hidden mini-game. Altogether, the company has lost $50 million due to both setbacks.
As if things couldn't get any worse for the fledging videogame company, a recent federal investigation has been commissioned by the House of Representatives to determine whether or not the company purposely deceived the ESRB ratings board into giving the game its original 'Mature' rating. Rockstar could be sued for yet more money, pending the investigation's findings.