Take-Two settles Hot Coffee class action

By Tom Bramwell Published 2 September, 2009

Pours $20 million's worth of cold water.

Take-Two and its insurance carriers have agreed to fork over more than $20 million to settle a class action suit covering historical stock option issues and, of course, the legendary Hot Coffee timebomb originally stamped into GTA: San Andreas discs.

Under the proposed settlement, Take-Two will pay $4,915,000 and its insurance firms $15,200,000 to satisfy class members, and Take-Two has agreed to extend changes already made in its corporate governance policies and practices.

In a brief statement, Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick said the publisher was "pleased to have reached this settlement, which represents another important step forward for the Company".

Hot Coffee was a sex-based mini-game cut out of GTA: San Andreas at some point during its development but left locked away on PC, PS2 and Xbox discs in sufficiently usable form for modders to uncover after the game's release.

It proved rather expensive for Take-Two, which saw its game re-rated by the American ESRB and undertook to replace consumers' AO copies of the game with M-rated ones and pay them $35 in exchange for proof of purchase.

The publisher's Rockstar Games imprint eventually developed a sense of humour about the affair, however, and even included a "Warm Coffee" Achievement/Trophy reward in Grand Theft Auto IV, received when the Niko Bellic successfully dated a girl and found himself invited indoors for a euphemistic beverage.

Although the company has settled the class action, that doesn't mean it agrees with the claims made in the class action itself, which were many. Kotaku's summary of events includes a link to the class action itself if you fancy taking a look. We're pretty over it ourselves.

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 (19) Latest comment 2 years ago

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

  • Spekingur #1 2 years ago

    Somehow it's okay to mow down people whilst driving a van in GTA:SA but as soon as there's a hint of sex some people just explode in some sort of this-is-unacceptable-for-my-kids bomb.

  • Tyronne #2 2 years ago

    Only thing this makes me think is what else is hidden away on the other games I own.

  • LazyDan #3 2 years ago

    Moresome snuff scene featuring the game's cast in Mario Party 3?

  • Sunyavadin #4 2 years ago

    This is sickening and highlights the absolute ignorance of, indeed, makes a mockery of, the court system...
    If a THIRD PARTY MOD is required to access a capability - it is THE INDIVIDUAL WHO APPLIES THE MOD who is responsible.

    You don't see massive lawsuits against car manufacturers for making cars that OMG CAN GO FASTER THAN THE MAXIMUM SPEED LIMIT IF THE DRIVER CHOOSES TO FLOOR IT - and they don't even require complex tweaks to the engine to do so.... If an Audi driver runs down a child while speeding, do you see every Audi owner suing Audi for making cars that are capable of doing 155mph in a 30-limit zone?

    Everyone involved in this action, who recieved part of the settlement, ought to be convicted of extortion.
    Edited by 3 at 02/09/09 @ 09:44

  • kangarootoo #5 2 years ago

    It is frankly ridiculous that they had to pay a single cent to anybody over this affair.

    Or it would be ridiculous, if it wasn't disgusting. One of the biggest shows self imposed public offense I think I've ever seen. Worse even than the Jonathan Ross nonsense of recent UK history.

    To paraphrase Morgan Freeman in Deep Impact "a person can be all those good things, but people are idiots".

  • Monkey_Puncher #6 2 years ago

    OH NOEZ BOOBIEZ!

  • Kerome #7 2 years ago

    It's a lot of money... bound to have moved the break-even point of that game a little, but then GTA makes money hand over fist anyway.

  • speedjack #8 2 years ago

    'My client can't BELIEVE that after reading about, downloading and willfully installing this mod/hack, and being fully aware of the disabled content it would unlock in this adult game, they and their children were then FORCIBLY SUBJECTED to watching poorly rendered SEX !!!11!!'.

    signed

    Hypocritical Para$itic Litigiou$ Ba$tard (the third).

  • RedSparrows #9 2 years ago

    'Somehow it's okay to mow down people whilst driving a van in GTA:SA but as soon as there's a hint of sex some people just explode in some sort of this-is-unacceptable-for-my-kids bomb.'

    This. Some moral standards are incredibly imbalanced.

  • dirk_aircool #10 2 years ago

    Maby GTAV will have a Litigation mini game where you get to be a lawyer who can print thier own dollar bills . or get horrified ignoramiai to print it for you .

    I think I just invented a word , I'm not sure I spelled it right . the long one that starts with an ' i '
    Edited by 1 at 02/09/09 @ 11:04

  • chicknstu #11 2 years ago

    Common sense loses again.

  • Slipstream #12 2 years ago

    Gand Theft Auto: San Andreas is an 18 Certified game...What's the problem?

  • erp #13 2 years ago

    @Spekingur: +1

    Welcome to America.

    :(

  • Spekingur #14 2 years ago

    Colombia and Peru are in America. I don't see them throwing an international public hissy fit ;p
    Edited by 1 at 02/09/09 @ 12:33

  • Nithron #15 2 years ago

    That's it, i'm through.

    I'm moving to a tiny island somewhere away from all this nonsense.

    Seeya.

  • Spekingur #16 2 years ago

    Invisible Walls on Gametrailers went on and on about ESRB not so long ago. Damn puritans. *shakes fist*

  • Bazfrag #17 2 years ago

    Put that naked body away! its disgusting and unnatural...

    Whats more interesting is the lies and insider trading as mentioned by Kotaku. Wtf were they thinking?

    "The suit outlines how the value of Take-Two's stock first rose significantly with the release of the game and then began to plummet as the allegations and suits came to light. 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."

  • Discalceaterabbit #18 2 years ago

    Damn straight that they should have had to pay out. If God wanted us to see naked people we would be born naked........

  • penhalion #19 2 years ago

    Remember people this is North "You can take away our freedom but, you can't take away our guns" America we are talking about!