Feature: ESRB slaps GTA: San Andreas with an Adults Only rating Subscribe to this RSS feed

Thanks to the political pressure of Senator Chuck Schumer and the mighty Hilary Clinton, the ERSB has announced that they're socking GTA: San Andreas with the dreaded Adults Only (18+) rating. As a result, Rockstar has announced that they're ceasing all production of the current version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The ramifications, as you might guess, could be sweeping.

Take-Two, who publishes the Grand Theft Auto series, has just announced the conclusion of its investigation into the unauthorized "Hot Coffee" mod, which lets PC, Xbox and PS2 players frolic in fairly explicit, if crudely modeled and animated, simulated sex scenes.

  • -- ESRB assigns "Adults Only 18+" (AO) rating for current version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas due to unauthorized third party "Hot Coffee" modification


  • -- Rockstar Games to cease manufacture of current version of title and offer a downloadable patch to prevent modification of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for PC


  • -- Company lowers third quarter and fiscal year guidance to reflect the expected negative impact on the title's retail performance
    • C.J.'s shooting more than just blanks...


    You may be thinking, "so what? I'm 18, this ruling doesn't affect me."

    That would be a mistake. This highly politicized ruling could result in wide, sweeping changes to the way publishers make games.

    Firstly, the retroactive Adults Only (18+) rating is sure to draw the ire of big-box retailers like Wal-Mart, who have a policy of not selling Adults Only-rated titles. Retail giant Best Buy, in fact, just announced that they're pulling all copies of GTA: San Andreas off the shelves. That can only translate into enormous lost sales for Rockstar, especially given the fact that the game only recently landed on the Xbox and PC formats.

    But what does this mean for the industry? And just why did San Andreas recieve an Adults Only rating? The explicit content wasn't easily viewable by players, but it did exist on the disc in an unaccessible form. It took the "Hot Coffee" patch to unlock it. So let's say a group of amateur game fans release a fan-made patch--as hardcore fans will--that renders Gordon Freeman nude in Half-Life 2. Or shows a scene of sexual congress with, say, a headcrab. Does that mean that the ESRB will retaliate by slapping Half-Life 2 with an Adults Only rating? Both games require patches in order to see the explicit content. Are game publishers somehow responsible for user-made modifications? The ESRB's decision opens up an enormous can of worms. Take-Two's CEO, Paul Eibeler, said it best: "The ESRB's decision to re-rate a game based on an unauthorized third party modification presents a new challenge for parents, the interactive entertainment industry and anyone who distributes or consumes digital content."

    Make no mistake: the possibilities here are ominous.

    More news as it comes...