Gawker: valleywag, grand theft auto

Grand Theft Auto's $20 Million Screw Up

Ryan Tate — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:24:19 EDT

Remember the hidden sex scene in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas? It was a terrible, amoral departure from the game's official content of endless murder rampages. And it's going to cost publisher Take-Two Interactive an astonishing $20 million.

The company and, more to the point, its insurance company are shelling out the money to settle a lawsuit from investors who claimed the company knew its programmers had hidden the sex scene in the game and decided to ship it anyway. Not a terrible idea; development is expensive, timetables are tight, and in any case the hidden scenes could only be unlocked with special software. But the company underestimated how strong America's Puritan impulses remain. Now it's spending 36 times what CBS was (unsuccessfully) fined for the crime of exposing America to Janet Jackson's nipple. It's just that inappropriate to take a break from your life of crime, for sex.

Parental advocates rejoice: Thai teen claims "Grand Theft Auto" inspired taxi driver murder

Nicholas Carlson — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:20:00 EDT

Bangkok police arrested a Thai teenager "after he was found trying to steer a cab backwards out of a Bangkok street with the severely wounded driver in the back seat," reports Reuters. The kid told police he didn't mean to kill the driver and only stabbed him to death after he fought back. In Take-Two Interactive's Grand Theft Auto IV, the game that the kid later said inspired his attack, players don't always have to kill drivers to steal their cars. "He said he wanted to find out if it was as easy in real life to rob a taxi as it was in the game," said chief police investigator Veeravit Pipattanasak. New Era Interactive Media, which distributes Grand Theft Auto in Thailand, has asked retailers to remove the game from their shelves.

Hot coffee, fast cars, and a class-action lawsuit

Mary Jane Irwin — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 16:51:28 EST

Oh the steamy summer of 2005, otherwise remembered as the "Hot Coffee" scandal. Take-Two Interactive ushered in a new wave of videogame scrutiny after shipping Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas with a sexual intercourse minigame hidden in the code. (Players had to actively hack the game to get to it.) Grandmother Florence Cohen filed a class-action suit. Take-Two (Rockstar's parent company) has finally quit court and is offering anyone offended by the minigame is offering an exchange: the old, hacked version of San Andreas for a new, sex-free, copy and $35. Because virtual sexual encounters in a M-rated game (over 17) are the only thing about Grand Theft Auto which could potentially damage a 14-year-old.