Take Two Interactive in Hot Water Over "Hot Coffee" - Again

Here we go again. Rockstar Games, notoriously known for the violent, carjacking-tinged videogame series Grand Theft Auto, has landed in hot water once more in the wake of the "Hot Coffee" scandal. According to Reuters, a judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit against the Rockstar's parent Take Two Interactive concerning allegations that the company sold games in the popular crime noir series "containing sexually explicit images under the wrong content label."

The lawsuit, originally "filed in July 2005 seeking class-action status, said Take-Two's alleged misconduct violated consumer protection laws in all 50 states and the District of Columbia," the Reuters article continues. Since then "a number of cases making the same claim were consolidated in Manhattan federal court."

Both Take-Two and its subsidiary gave their best argument to "dismiss parts of the lawsuit that the plaintiffs could only file claims in the states where they resided, not all 50 states." However, Reuters reports that "U.S. District Judge Shirley Wohl Kram denied Take-Two's motion and said she would reconsider if class-action status were granted in the case."

"If class certification is granted, the court will have the benefit of a well-defined class and a more fully developed treatment of potential choice of law questions," Kram said on Wednesday.

Neither Take Two nor its subsidiary had a spokesperson available for comment when contacted by Reuters.

The Reuters article goes on to explain the ruckus that erupted when the company's "best-selling Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was found to have hidden sex scenes in 2005. The explicit scenes, known as "Hot Coffee" allowed players to engage in virtual sex acts." The result of the scandal was devastating: when "the scenes were discovered, the video game ratings board slapped a restrictive "adult" rating on the game. Take- Two had to pull the games off store shelves and repackage them with the adult rating, which crimped sales and disrupted the company's operations." A modified version (albeit with the hidden scenes removed) was released soon afterward to maintain the original rating, and the whole scandal seemed to threaten the integrity of the entire ESRB ratings system used as the official North American videogame content review system.

The scandal also helped fuel the fire among critics of the Grand Theft Auto series and forced Take Two and its subsidiary to more closely monitor the content going into its titles to prevent a repeat of the uprising resulting from the whole ruckus surrounding the "Hot Coffee" case.

The full original article, in its entirety, can be found at the following URL:
http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2006-10-26T220443Z_01_N26471309_RTRUKOC_0_US-TAKETWO-LAWSUIT.xml&WTmodLoc=TechNewsHome_C1_%5BFeed%5D-5