The ESRB has spoken.

[Mike Pothier]

http://ps2.ign.com/articles/635/635198p1.html

Killing Cops and prostitutes? Eh, only M-rated material.

MY GOD, SEX WITH A WOMAN! And you need a code to unlock it! Adults Only.

[Jagatai_Khan]

I wonder if this means that God Of War will become Adults Only, as well. It has an (optional) Sex scene mini-game, and a non-optional scene with naked breasts and sexual conversation.

[Mike Pothier]

Doubt it. That would be unhypocritical.

[GreenLantern2008]

What is the hot coffee thing?

[Draconomicon]

Hot Coffee is a mod that allows you to unlock a sex mini game within GTA 4.
Its really not a big thing. The characters do not even have sexual organs.
Its simply a movement thing...

Meh, shows once more "Violence is okey, Sex isnt!"
What a world...

[OxBaker]

I think the whole thing is actually pretty funny myself, haha.

[Spiff]

Aren't they even clothed in the hot coffee mod?

Here's what I don't understand. With the effort it takes to find, download, and install the hot coffee mod, wouldn't someone be able to download a nude patch for The Sims or Half Life 2, or whatever game? I know the difference is because the files are still on the San Andreas disc, but it's not like there's a way to access them without a third party accessory.

And if sex is worse than violence, why isn't statutory get a worse penalty than first degree murder? I don't understand this justice system.

[Sanagi]

I wonder just how evil and depraved a violent act has to be before it's more shocking than a polygonal boob.

I wonder if this means that God Of War will become Adults Only, as well. It has an (optional) Sex scene mini-game, and a non-optional scene with naked breasts and sexual conversation.
If it was titled Grand Theft Auto: Ancient Rome, the answer would be yes. But the people who complain about video games don't play video games, and therefore don't know the names of any games that aren't advertised incessantly on TV.

[Shades0077]

I wonder just how evil and depraved a violent act has to be before it's more shocking than a polygonal boob.


If it was titled Grand Theft Auto: Ancient Rome, the answer would be yes. But the people who complain about video games don't play video games, and therefore don't know the names of any games that aren't advertised incessantly on TV.
God of War had a pretty heavy television ad campaign.

As for the ruling, as much as I hate to say it, I can see the ESRB's point. I don't agree with their designations, but what is included in San Andreas technically makes it an AO game, by their standards. As was pointed out on Penny Arcade, here are the descriptions of the two ratings, from the ESRB's site.

MATURE
Titles rated M (Mature) have content that may be suitable for persons ages 17 and older. Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content, and/or strong language.

ADULTS ONLY
Titles rated AO (Adults Only) have content that should only be played by persons 18 years and older. Titles in this category may include prolonged scenes of intense violence and/or graphic sexual content and nudity.

So it seems like the only difference is that AO has longer scens of the violence and sexual conent, and contains actual nudity. Considering that the Hot Coffee sequence has the characters naked, it clearly falls under the AO rating.

I'm curious as to why the content was in there in the first place. Was it an intended segment of the game that was cut due to time constraints, or perhaps because they knew it would give the game the AO rating? If so, why was it left in the code? Maybe it was the work of a disgruntled employee.

Ultimately, the whole situation is pretty lame. You can have mountains of visceral gore in a game, but one little tittie flash, and people go nuts.

[Uatu]

I can see why the ESRB changed the rating, because ultimately it is something in the game. Yes you need a special mod patch or AR code, and a few hours of game play to view the content, but it's content that's already in the game, it wasn't added in by hackers, just made available.

R* should have been samrter than this, the mini games were probably locked to avoid an AO rating, a rating that most stores won't stock, they should have know that someone would find the content sooner or later.

I'm curious now to see what's going to happen to the game. EB, Gamestop and Babbages have already pulled the game off shelves. It will be interesting to see if they put them back out after they recieve the AO stickers from the ESRB, or refuse to sell the newly rated games.

[Mike Pothier]

The most damning thing for Rockstar was definitely the PS2 version. The fact that you could actually input a code and unlock it pretty much proves it was intentionally put in there.

Really, though, considering how inconsistent the ESRB is, I still don't think this warrents an AO rating. Especially with the God of War minigame that passed with nobody caring.

[Jagatai_Khan]

Nobody's thrown a fit about Lesuire Suit Larry, or the Guy Game, both of which, according to the rating system, should be AO, but are only rated M.

The whole rating system is incredibly hypocritical, as is the games that are singled out to be persecuted. But, of course, rather than just be consistent, they instead only pick one game to make an example of, and then smugly pat themselves on the back, thinking they've won a victory for the moral safety of children, while tons of other games pass by unnoticed.

[Uatu]

Nobody's thrown a fit about Lesuire Suit Larry, or the Guy Game, both of which, according to the rating system, should be AO, but are only rated M.

Actually the Guy Game has been banned, and will no longer be produced or sold, but that's due to the fact that it featured an underage girl topless.

Like anything, the main reason GTA was targeted was because it's such a huge success and easily recognizeable. The GG was never flagged because it was a piss poor game and quickly dropped off the radar. It didn't sell 5 million copies, so no one cared what was in it, and the same goes for all the other unpopular games to feature more graphic sex and nudity than SA with hot coffee.

[SAMAS]

I can see why the ESRB changed the rating, because ultimately it is something in the game. Yes you need a special mod patch or AR code, and a few hours of game play to view the content, but it's content that's already in the game, it wasn't added in by hackers, just made available.

R* should have been samrter than this, the mini games were probably locked to avoid an AO rating, a rating that most stores won't stock, they should have know that someone would find the content sooner or later.

They may not have had a choice. Computer Programming can be a real bitch. Simply removing a portion of code can end up fucking something else up elsewhere in the game, even if it's seemingly unrelated to it. If they didn't have time to remove the code, and then re-test the entire game to make sure it didn't result in yet more bugs, and fix any bugs that did appear, then re-test the game, etc... then the smart thing to do to hold on to the deadline is just to make the sucker unavailable.

[J Dog]

San Andreas is officicall ruined.

R.I.P.

[grendel824]

Hot Coffee is a mod that allows you to unlock a sex mini game within GTA 4.



There is no such game as "GTA 4" yet. You're referring to GTA: San Andreas, which is, at least, the fifth game in the series, but both Vice City and San Andreas are considered part of "GTA III." GTA IV will likely be introduced on a next-gen console.