Federal Investigation to Reheat Hot Coffee - 27.7.05

It appears the storm over pornographic content in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas hasn't passed yet; the U.S. House of Representatives have voted to formally launch an investigation into the matter, to be carried out by the Federal Trade Commission.

The aim of the investigation is to find out whether Take-Two or Rockstar Games were deliberately deceptive about the presence of the Hot Coffee content in the game. According to Gamesindustry, the result of the investigation could mean a hefty fine, or an order to widen the scope of the recall of the game from retail outlets.

At this point, it's not looking good for the company; when they were being investigated by the ESRB, they blamed the content on the modders who create files like Hot Coffee, but as soon as the ESRB had handed down their decision, they u-turned drastically and admitted the content was theirs.

The investigation comes on the same day that a guide to interpreting the "difficult" ESRB ratings appeared on the FTC website. This might betray a level of dissatisfaction with the ESRB on the part of the FTC - the ESRB is not an independent body, but rather formed by the very games industry it's charged with monitoring. Indeed, the whole Hot Coffee controversy kicked off after a Californian assemblyman berated the ESRB for not giving the game an Adult Only rating from the beginning.

Read Take-Two's release on the new investigation - FTC launches probe of sex-fueled videogame company

Related:
Rockstar Admit Percolating Hot Coffee (22 July)
Rockstar Again Denies Stirring Hot Coffee (14 July)
Clinton Statement Praises ESRB, Smacks Rockstar
Take-Two press release announcing ratings change
id CEO voices concerns over Hot Coffee
Hot Coffee Earns GTA: San Andreas Adult Only Rating
Rumour: GTA Sex Mod Clever Marketing Ploy?
GTA Hot Coffee Also Confirmed On PS2(16 July)
Modder: "the scriptcode, the models, the animations and the dialogs by the original voice-actors were all created by RockStar"
Interview With Assemblyman At Centre of GTA Sex Mod Row (16 July)
Watchdog Jumps Into GTA Sex Mod Debate (12 July)
Rockstar Deny Sex in GTA: San Andreas (11 July)
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