Federal Trade Commission to investigate San Andreas
FTC's Advertising Practices Division will investigate advertising claims made for the game.
The Federal Trade Commission's Advertising Practices Division will investigate advertising claims made for the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas according to a press release from Take-Two. In the release, Take-Two states that it believes that it acted in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations after the game was originally given an Mature 17+ (M) rating, this however was replaced with a Adults Only 18+ (AO) rating after the release of a mod for the PC version called Hot Coffee that allowed users to view sexual content.
Rockstar initally said this mod hacked the game to show the sexual scenes but later finds showed that even the PlayStation 2 version, which was read only from the DVD disc, could access the content through an Action Replay cartridge.
"Rockstar Games and Take Two Interactive regret that consumers may have been exposed to content that was not intended to be accessible in the playable version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The Company has taken significant steps to remedy this situation, including halting production of the current version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and has begun working on a version of the game that will not contain the elements used to enable the "hot coffee" modification. Going forward, the Company will refine the process by which it edits games and will enhance the protection of its game code to prevent such future modifications.
Take-Two Interactive recognizes and takes seriously its responsibility to ensure that its games are rated and marketed appropriately. The Company will continue to support and promote the ESRB rating system to help keep mature-themed video game content out of the hands of children."