So they didn't have time to take it out because they needed money. Right?
But that doesn't explain why Hot Coffee was there in the first place to be deleted.
Is there something that I'm not getting?
Also, I'm the first to lambast these lawsuits in most cases. I will scorn the over-sensitive mamby pambies as harshly as I can. But the financial shenanigans that lurk behind HC, according to this, are just scummy. If they're true, someone from Take 2 should probably go to prison.
Lol, remember when take two put up a website saying it wanted like 30 dollars a share from EA to buy them out... then shortly after EA said "no way" their stock plummeted down to 7 bucks? yeah I'm sure the holders were really happy with that.
After reading some of the comments made in reply to this story, I have to say that I'm pretty stunned by the response. This isn't like Mass Effect where the media have blown something out of proportion because they don't want to take the time to do their research. I'm honestly confused by how counter-culture everyone is being about this by saying "bah stupid politicians" and so forth. The sex scene isn't the issue, it's all of Take-Two's garbage surrounding it, and I'm going to have to disagree with the majority and say that I'm glad it's costing them now.
First off, insider trading is a criminal offense. Martha Stewart had to go to jail for that business, so why not these guys? Is there a reason that people that made money by lying about this should not be held physically and fiscally accountable?
Second off, when the whole controversy came to light, not only did they lie about it, but the actually had the audacity to point the finger of blame at the modding community.
Think about that. I'll even repeat it to help you out:
Take-Two blamed the people that had shelled out money to buy the game (hint, this is You) in order to save their own collective asses. It's abominable, and it shouldn't be tolerated.
Hot Coffee I could care less about. I don't see the big deal. But, lying to investors and insider trading are criminal. If the allegations are true, fuck the civil lawsuit, I'd rather see criminal charges brought up.
@Hey_Blinkon: Agreed. What boggles my mind is how Take Two could be hurting badly enough for cash after the huge successes of GTA3 and Vice City that they would need to resort to corporate fraud and insider trading. I know that a video game costs money to make, but that series also brings in a hell of a lot of money.
"The suit connects the two, alleging that the company lied during financial statements to try and cover themselves and later key executives profited from inside information while selling company stock."
..or, the devs did not inform anyone of the easter-egg, and corporate hq paniced a little bit when they found out, and "covered it up" to avoid crazy lawsuits, rather than.. lol.. doing the honorable thing and.. er.. honestly admit they sold a game with.. gasp... sex in it.. *shakes head*
What about the porn- scene in Vice City? It's part of the main plot! I'd bet good settlement money that the ones behind the lawsuit haven't even played the game.
@Darkly Dreaming svenhoek: And this is what I will never understand, no one bitches about GoW's hot titties, but shits bricks to no end at the terrible looking sex scene and things that hardly constitute as titties in GTA:SA.
@nipsen: I think it's pretty stupid, this whole thing. It's in a game with violence, gangs, hookers, and all that already in there. While the cover up, was just stupidity on their part, blaming others, if they just said, "yes, there was a scene that was cut left in the game that people had to go and break the game (alter code which is illegal to do as the company still owns that code) and we are sorry that we did not choose a better way to rid of that scene" all of this would not be so big. Also, parents not buying this game for their kids as well would help, but you know, seems like everyone wants someone else to do things for them. Hand outs, healthcare, raising their kids. I really think Wall-E's future is right, no one cares except to talk about meaningless crap anyways.
@Rajolae: It was "hidden" though. Thats the problem. People watch movies. People watch porn. Both are ok. But if you had porn on a normal movie disc that could be accessed with a computer, people would be pissed.
The whole issue is stupid, but I think that's where the "outrage" comes from.
You know I imagine that somewhere in an internet enabled library a dirty and disheveled Jack Thompson is dancing like Golem on the edge of the fiery abyss in Mount Doom singing "I was right RIGHT my precious!, dirty gamers they tooks my license to practice away, they stoles it, but I was RIGHT and THEY WILL PAY!"
Edited by Weirdwolf Is Restared To Glory! at 09/01/09 6:54 PM
Weirdwolf Is Restared To Glory! was starred
Weirdwolf Is Restared To Glory! was unstarred
I mean, it's not like anyone wants you to go prove yourself by doing an in-depth comparison on the functionality, advantages, and disadvantages of the CISC versus RISC architectures.
@Weirdwolf Englands Ashes!: In fact, Jack Thomson has a "personnal" issue with the president of Take2 (Ben Feder) since he meet him in may 2007. So yes, he might be happy to see this news today. I personally think that this news gives M. Thompson more credibility. I could explain it later if you want.
I'm afraid even with the allegations in this suit JT hasn't got any credibility left at all, he pissed it away with a long precession of childish antics, insults, threats, perversion of scientific data and frankly ludicrous attempts to both hide behind and abuse the American constitution.
Even IF these allegations are correct it would have no bearing on what I thought of the man, even a broken watch will be correct twice a day.
Well yeah like well of course if they did ask I could like TOTALLY do that.....
I mean like one uses a C and one uses an R and if your fingers slipped you could like mix it up with disc and that would be like really ba...
OK OK I'VE GOT NOTHING, NOTHING AT ALL DAMN IT!
(sniff sniff)
Oh god my whole life is a lie, I was born a jock but well in those days it just wasn't the same. If you weren't a geek rocket scientist people just didn't treat you the same. It was the pressure, all that pressure from society. Before you know it I was trying to buy a slide rule and going into movie theatres watching Star Wars. Oh god you've no idea how often I've longed to dress up in a hockey shirt and chat about the Habs chances this year but I force myself into that uniform and go to the Star Trek convention instead....
@The Amazing Exploding-Man: This isn't an example of censorship. Rockstar shipped the game with the M/AO-rated content hidden on the disc for anyone to play if they were looking for it. They cheated the ESRB out of a fair rating and were held accountable for it.
@DarCowAlways: I would define " anyone to play" quite loosely here. You have to be pretty knowledgeable about what you are "looking for" in order to be able to hack into the game, add in your own codes to get the scene.
These class action settlements are goddamn ridiculous. I've just been designated a 'class member' with THREE different settlements in the course of this past week, for various things. Sure I'll participate in them, but I'm at the most getting a few dollars back for some silly, drawn out waste of time that they call a settlement. Not worth anyone's time, really.
So do I get something out of this now too because I own the original, unaltered PS2 version? Cause I sure want to claim that two dollars at the expense of courts and attorneys. /facepalm
I'm quite surprised that Take Two settled since I can't imagine how it could be held liable for third party actions. If a kid walks into a store and steals a porno, do we arrest the magazine publisher for inappropriate behavior?
This trial would also appear to set a bad precedent in that a developer is responsible for every last byte on the software it sells regardless of whether or not said content is intentionally locked away, which could result in buggier games or longer testing phases (increasing game costs) while potential law suit threats are removed. I'm disappointed Take Two settled since it green lights any other future frivolous law suits.
@Kobun: No, but if a teen magazine has a page that can be folded to see a hidden sex pic then yeah.. the magazine would be in trouble and responsible for it's employees actions.
I don't think it's a big deal.. but seriously. How the hell does a employee hide a sex mini game without anyone catching it? It even has sound effects.. seriously, come on. With sucha reputable company you think the programmers or someone would have caught it.
@Kobun: While I agree that this was a big deal made out of nothing, I don't know if it's accurate to say Take Two was totally free of guilt here.
After all, this "extra" content was obviously not locked away very well. It was easily discovered and easily unlocked, was it not? If they truly didn't want that content in the game, they should have simply removed the code. Or they could have alerted the Ratings Board that it was in there so it could be considered when they were given their rating.
At best, this may have been an unintentional mistake on Take Two's part... But the result was the same. This lawsuit puts other developers on notice that when it comes to this kind of content, they better disclose it or remove it completely.
It is a shame, though. $20 million sounds ridiculous, and the only ones who are profiting from this are the lawyers.
@topogigio: The only way to get to this code was to modify your system (or just the code for the PC version) and then access the portions of the game. I won't even get into the legality of modifying your system in the first place.
But the most important fact is this. If you played this game and completed it 100%, you would never run into the Hot Coffee portion of the game.
@skaven:
That's not true at all it only takes an action replay and u type the code and Viola ur san andreas on ps2 has hot coffee and it can either u have nude skin or do with clothes that was pretty bad on rockstar side though for people finding out shit.
I tried to sell my GTA san andreas to gamestop i told them u can do the hot coffee shit on it and they were like then ur game is really rare because it says M on it still even though those copies should have AO on it
@gn2007: But you still had to modify the game to find the part. My point still stands that you could play the game to 100% completion and never get to this scene.
But ya, your GTA:SA game could be worth more. Retailers either pulled the game entirely or placed an AO sticker over the M on the cover to have true representation of the product. I say keep a piece of gaming history... but that's just me.
@b.bear: I wouldn't say it was "not locked away very well" as having to use a third-party tool to bypass security to crack the game and access restricted content is definitely steps a developer doesn't plan on people taking. As skaven noted, no one playing the game under any normal situation would have discovered this content.
The problem arises that lots of games leave behind assets on the disc which do not make it to the final game to avoid any data disruption which could crash the game or give birth to bugs. Under the same exact circumstances one could theoretically threaten a lawsuit against say, Temco or Eidos, by using an outside tool to strip female characters to their nude state and complaining that a T-rated game contains "adult content."
Any gamer who played this game and enjoyed and still joined this bs class action suit...strike that. Any gamer that joined this suit period needs to be whacked and banned from playing games ever again.
This had to be the stupidest controversy in the history of the words stupid and controversy
@dowingba: Her name was Stella Liebeck, and she was asking for medical bill coverage. The McDonald's lawyers were so obnoxious in court that the jury said they should be liable for millions more as an asshole tax. The final settlement was much less. (I cut some corners in my synopsis, but those are the basics.)
I had to horn in on that, because usually when the case comes up in casual conversation the backstory goes unmentioned. Like most things in life, it's a little more complex than what the news reports.
@Halo_Override: Someone sued someone for making their coffee hot. That sounds like about the long and short of it. "Asshole tax" backstory doesn't really add or detract from this point.
09/02/09
But that doesn't explain why Hot Coffee was there in the first place to be deleted.
Is there something that I'm not getting?
Also, I'm the first to lambast these lawsuits in most cases. I will scorn the over-sensitive mamby pambies as harshly as I can. But the financial shenanigans that lurk behind HC, according to this, are just scummy. If they're true, someone from Take 2 should probably go to prison.
09/02/09
09/01/09
First off, insider trading is a criminal offense. Martha Stewart had to go to jail for that business, so why not these guys? Is there a reason that people that made money by lying about this should not be held physically and fiscally accountable?
Second off, when the whole controversy came to light, not only did they lie about it, but the actually had the audacity to point the finger of blame at the modding community.
Think about that. I'll even repeat it to help you out:
Take-Two blamed the people that had shelled out money to buy the game (hint, this is You) in order to save their own collective asses. It's abominable, and it shouldn't be tolerated.
09/01/09
Pretending to have fully clothed sex isnt.
09/01/09
09/01/09
That's news to me.
Or, if dry humping is now considered porn, we have been illegally selling porn to six year olds for decades now.
09/01/09
09/01/09
09/01/09
09/01/09
..or, the devs did not inform anyone of the easter-egg, and corporate hq paniced a little bit when they found out, and "covered it up" to avoid crazy lawsuits, rather than.. lol.. doing the honorable thing and.. er.. honestly admit they sold a game with.. gasp... sex in it.. *shakes head*
What about the porn- scene in Vice City? It's part of the main plot! I'd bet good settlement money that the ones behind the lawsuit haven't even played the game.
09/01/09
09/01/09
09/01/09
09/01/09
09/01/09
The whole issue is stupid, but I think that's where the "outrage" comes from.
09/02/09
No, come on. They can't possibly be suing Take Two because they genuinely feel like they've been taken advantage of?
09/01/09
09/01/09
09/01/09
09/01/09
Because a Golem is something... completely different. [en.wikipedia.org]
09/01/09
D'oh! Damn spiel chucker!
I shall now turn in my geek credentials and immolate myself on a pyre made from all my Tolkien books.
09/01/09
09/01/09
I mean, it's not like anyone wants you to go prove yourself by doing an in-depth comparison on the functionality, advantages, and disadvantages of the CISC versus RISC architectures.
09/01/09
09/01/09
I'm afraid even with the allegations in this suit JT hasn't got any credibility left at all, he pissed it away with a long precession of childish antics, insults, threats, perversion of scientific data and frankly ludicrous attempts to both hide behind and abuse the American constitution.
Even IF these allegations are correct it would have no bearing on what I thought of the man, even a broken watch will be correct twice a day.
09/01/09
Well yeah like well of course if they did ask I could like TOTALLY do that.....
I mean like one uses a C and one uses an R and if your fingers slipped you could like mix it up with disc and that would be like really ba...
OK OK I'VE GOT NOTHING, NOTHING AT ALL DAMN IT!
(sniff sniff)
Oh god my whole life is a lie, I was born a jock but well in those days it just wasn't the same. If you weren't a geek rocket scientist people just didn't treat you the same. It was the pressure, all that pressure from society. Before you know it I was trying to buy a slide rule and going into movie theatres watching Star Wars. Oh god you've no idea how often I've longed to dress up in a hockey shirt and chat about the Habs chances this year but I force myself into that uniform and go to the Star Trek convention instead....
09/01/09
09/01/09
CRISIS!!
BUM BUM BUM
09/01/09
09/01/09
09/01/09
09/01/09
So do I get something out of this now too because I own the original, unaltered PS2 version? Cause I sure want to claim that two dollars at the expense of courts and attorneys. /facepalm
09/01/09
This trial would also appear to set a bad precedent in that a developer is responsible for every last byte on the software it sells regardless of whether or not said content is intentionally locked away, which could result in buggier games or longer testing phases (increasing game costs) while potential law suit threats are removed. I'm disappointed Take Two settled since it green lights any other future frivolous law suits.
09/01/09
I don't think it's a big deal.. but seriously. How the hell does a employee hide a sex mini game without anyone catching it? It even has sound effects.. seriously, come on. With sucha reputable company you think the programmers or someone would have caught it.
09/01/09
After all, this "extra" content was obviously not locked away very well. It was easily discovered and easily unlocked, was it not? If they truly didn't want that content in the game, they should have simply removed the code. Or they could have alerted the Ratings Board that it was in there so it could be considered when they were given their rating.
At best, this may have been an unintentional mistake on Take Two's part... But the result was the same. This lawsuit puts other developers on notice that when it comes to this kind of content, they better disclose it or remove it completely.
It is a shame, though. $20 million sounds ridiculous, and the only ones who are profiting from this are the lawyers.
09/01/09
But the most important fact is this. If you played this game and completed it 100%, you would never run into the Hot Coffee portion of the game.
09/01/09
That's not true at all it only takes an action replay and u type the code and Viola ur san andreas on ps2 has hot coffee and it can either u have nude skin or do with clothes that was pretty bad on rockstar side though for people finding out shit.
I tried to sell my GTA san andreas to gamestop i told them u can do the hot coffee shit on it and they were like then ur game is really rare because it says M on it still even though those copies should have AO on it
09/01/09
But ya, your GTA:SA game could be worth more. Retailers either pulled the game entirely or placed an AO sticker over the M on the cover to have true representation of the product. I say keep a piece of gaming history... but that's just me.
09/01/09
The problem arises that lots of games leave behind assets on the disc which do not make it to the final game to avoid any data disruption which could crash the game or give birth to bugs. Under the same exact circumstances one could theoretically threaten a lawsuit against say, Temco or Eidos, by using an outside tool to strip female characters to their nude state and complaining that a T-rated game contains "adult content."
09/01/09
This had to be the stupidest controversy in the history of the words stupid and controversy
09/01/09
09/01/09
I had to horn in on that, because usually when the case comes up in casual conversation the backstory goes unmentioned. Like most things in life, it's a little more complex than what the news reports.
09/01/09
09/01/09
09/01/09
It seems to be a profitable line of work.
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