US GTA: San Andreas re-rated

By Tom Bramwell Published 21 July, 2005

Nothing likely to happen here.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has been re-rated in the USA as the result of an investigation by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) into a sexual explicit mini-game that could be unlocked through modification.

The game has been rebranded "AO" or "Adults Only" which means that it's considered suitable only for gamers aged 18 and over. It had previously been rated suitable for over-17s and carried the ESRB's "M" for "Mature" badge.

Existing copies of the game will be pulled from stores and either stickered with the updated rating or replaced with new copies. Rockstar says it's remastering the game without the offending content.

The "Hot Coffee" mod saw players taking their girlfriend home and then having sex with her in a bonus mini-game that, while present on the game DVD, only came to light after a PC modification unlocked the code. The data was subsequently found to be resident on the PS2 and Xbox discs and could be unlocked on PS2 using Datel's Action Replay cheat-finder product.

The ESRB and another industry body, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), have come under increasing pressure to act since Hot Coffee came to light, with widespread coverage in the American media and proponents of a ban receiving support from the likes of Hillary Clinton and loud-mouthed anti-videogame activist Jack Thompson, who recently compared ESA president Doug Lowenstein to Adolf Hitler over his role in the affair.

GTA: San Andreas is unlikely to be re-rated in the UK where it has been given an 18 certificate by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), meaning that it is illegal for retailers to sell it to anybody under that age. This situation is different to that in the USA where the ESRB's ratings, whilst generally upheld, are not legally binding.

Indeed, just last week the BBFC said that while it didn't know about Hot Coffee at the time of rating the game, it wasn't going to update it. "Even if we had been aware of it, we would not have had a problem," a spokesperson told this website. "From our point of view the hidden material does not contravene the 18 rating and so the rating stands."

In Australia however the game could well be banned altogether, with Australia's Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) - a notoriously strict organisation - having previously refused to classify titles including Manhunt and NARC, effectively banning them from sale. There the OFLC had said: "The Classification Board is compelled to revoke a game's classification if it is found to contain undisclosed contentious material, whether activated through use of a code or otherwise."

Rockstar continues to insist that Hot Coffee was an "unauthorised third party [..] modification," with president and CEO Paul Eibeler stating last night: "We are deeply concerned that the publicity surrounding these unauthorized modifications has caused the game to be misrepresented to the public and has detracted from the creative merits of this award winning product."

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (25) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • abeit #1 7 years ago

    First

  • Machiavel #2 7 years ago

    Drink some water?

  • Tyronne #3 7 years ago

    The sales must be going through the roof.

  • Wobbler #4 7 years ago

    Now, will this cause sales a) Drop dramatically, b) Spike ('cos everyone wants to see this 'sex minigame') or c) go back to normal after all this dies away, as after all, with eleventy billion (or however many) copies out there, is anyone else actually going to buy it?
    Edited by 1 at 21/07/05 @ 09:42

  • Madder-Max #5 7 years ago

    Eggsellent! Now I know how to unlock it on my PS2!

  • Wobbler #6 7 years ago

    Does this mean that Rockstar now get to release an uncut "fully" AO version and sell the whole lot again? ;)

  • JHuxley #7 7 years ago

    "Even if we had been aware of it, we would not have had a problem"

    Hurrah for the new BBFC! Now can we have Last House on the Left uncut please?

  • jellyhead #8 7 years ago

    If the game is banned in OZ and you own a copy do you have to turn it in to the police or something?
    Edited by 1 at 21/07/05 @ 09:54

  • PearOfAnguish #9 7 years ago

    The Aussies are weird. No porn, no violence. Sure, the weather's nice, but what are you going to do the rest of the time?

  • tonynibbles #10 7 years ago

    Sit back with a can of XXXX?

    You know, they CANT give a XXXX. Its not a choice, its just not allowed.

  • jellyhead #11 7 years ago

    It's like we sent them over in the Victorian era and they've stayed there. ;)

  • Xensor #12 7 years ago

    So all this bruhaha in the states means the age range has shifted by a whole year! Wow what a coup for the powers that be. Obviously being 17 is far too young to be thinking about sex! No no no these youngsters needed to be protected from themselves and must only have good clean brutally violent fun but NO SEX! However when u become 18 obviously you're suddenly an experienced adult even tho yesterday you were an immature child and therefore ropey polygonal pseudo-sex is ok to watch now.

    What a load of old shit. All they've done is guaranteed more sales for Rockstar.

  • Teeth #13 7 years ago

    /bows to Feanor

  • escapedape #14 7 years ago

    Xensor: I'm glad someone else noticed that too. All this brouhaha over it having an M rating instead of AO...and AO changes the age rating from 17+ to 18+. Because of course, that makes perfect sense. How messed up is America? Ridiculous.

    And i'm still wondering why there was all this fuss over badly rendered sex given all the violence contained in the game - so it's ok to run over tramps or kill random pedestrians...as long as you don't have consensual intercourse with someone of the opposite sex.

    Them Yanks sure do have some crazy morals.

  • Psi #15 7 years ago

    if rockstar pay me ill film me having sex with hilary clinton and release it on the net to get her off their backs

    if they double their offer ill let her husband watch

  • Darren #16 7 years ago

    How stupid can you get? If Rockstar didn't want the game to be 'misrepresented by the public' why on earth did they leave the code in the game in the first place? I mean any developer knows that there are people out there that hack their games and look for these kinds of things! Duh and indeed, duh!

  • Mr_Whacker #17 7 years ago

    Yeah, that will protect the minds of US children from evil.

  • Creedy #18 7 years ago

    What in the world are you guys on about? Australia is allowed to have porn. Graphic XXX porn is allowed here but it has to be consensual.
    No porn with bondage or any weird shit like golden showers or faeces etc is allowed. Thats all disgusting crap anyway.

    Also Manhunt was released here fully uncut. It got banned however for some unknown fucking reason when someone was murdered in the UK Manhunt style.

    Lastly, the OFLC arent extremely strict, they are just extremely stupid and have no idea what they are on about.

  • Madder-Max #19 7 years ago

    Bondage is fun...it has to be with like minded partner who doesn't tak it too seriously mind...
    Edited by 1 at 21/07/05 @ 12:31

  • Lothar Hex #20 7 years ago

    Unauthorised modifications...on the PS2 and Xbox versions, riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

    Eh, sales will skyrocket now because of it anyway.

  • Feanor #21 7 years ago

    /accepts bow :)

    All of this would probably never had happend if America had a ratings system like Britain and New Zealand do. The ESRB ratings are good in many ways, but any gamer could tell you that GTA:SA getting the same non-legally binding M rating as Fable is a joke. Perhaps now they will start using the AO rating they way it should be used instead of reserving it for weird sex games.

    Killer 7 should probably be rated AO, too. Not played it yet but everything I've read makes it sound like it needs a higher rating than the M-rated Resident Evil 4.

  • Genji #22 7 years ago

    Killer 7 isn't especially violent per se, it's just really, really screwed up.

  • Kafeen #23 7 years ago

    "Yeah, that will protect the minds of US children from evil."

    Apart from those with the internet to see hard core pornography like this :
    http://media.xbox.ign.com/media/623/623715/img_292675 0.html

    "Nothing likely to happen here.. "

    Well there's news for ya.

    Is anyone else bored of all this Hot Coffee news lately?

  • Genji #24 7 years ago

    "Is anyone else bored of all this Hot Coffee news lately?"

    What, you think we should be discussing - *snigger* - real news?

  • Genji #25 7 years ago

    On another note, I bought the Resident Evil 4 chainsaw controller today. Guess what? It's getting banned as of Monday. The OFLC, in their infinite wisdom, is banning the controller, but not the game.