Strong-arming the gamers.
MMMmmm. Hot Coffee.....
This is excellent. A Dutch programmer released a mod last month for the PC version of GTA San Andreas which he called "Hot Coffee". Basically it unlocked a mini game where after a date, you could shag the woman rather than just hear the event from outside the building. Take Two Interactive, RockStar's parent company, was quick to blame the modder and disavow responsibility for the racy content. In a July 13 press release, the company claimed that "a determined group of hackers" had gone to "significant trouble to alter scenes in the official version of the game," a process that the company said involved disassembling, recompiling and "altering the game's source code."
You know where this is going don't you?
So next, the same guy tweaked and fiddled with a GameShark-like add-on for the Xbox and PS2 and wouldn't you know it - the exact same mini game was hidden on those versions too. Now given that you can't write patches for, or modify the code of PS2 and XBox games, the spotlight was cast back on to Take Two Interactive. How, it was asked, was it possible for this "determined group of hackers" to have gone to so much trouble that they'd managed to alter the game content of an unalterable console?
"Oh," said Take Two Interactive.
So on Wednesday, an investigation by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board concluded that Take Two was, in fact, responsible for the sex content, which was found in all three versions of San Andreas: the PC, Xbox and PlayStation2 discs. Wildenborg's Hot Coffee download merely made the scenes accessible - something he'd claimed all along.
The ESRB have re-rated GTA San Andreas from M to AO (Adults Only) and forced retailers to pull the game from their shelves. Take Two Interactive meanwhile have admitted that actually, the previous press release was a complete lie, and yes they did leave the mini game in there, but apparently it's not their fault. No, it's the gamers fault for modding the game. In fact they're so serious about it not being their fault that they're preparing law suits against Wildenborg (the modder) and the manufacturers of the GameShark and ActionReplay units.
Because obviously it's better to alienate the game-buying public than just admit you're wrong.
This is excellent. A Dutch programmer released a mod last month for the PC version of GTA San Andreas which he called "Hot Coffee". Basically it unlocked a mini game where after a date, you could shag the woman rather than just hear the event from outside the building. Take Two Interactive, RockStar's parent company, was quick to blame the modder and disavow responsibility for the racy content. In a July 13 press release, the company claimed that "a determined group of hackers" had gone to "significant trouble to alter scenes in the official version of the game," a process that the company said involved disassembling, recompiling and "altering the game's source code."
You know where this is going don't you?
So next, the same guy tweaked and fiddled with a GameShark-like add-on for the Xbox and PS2 and wouldn't you know it - the exact same mini game was hidden on those versions too. Now given that you can't write patches for, or modify the code of PS2 and XBox games, the spotlight was cast back on to Take Two Interactive. How, it was asked, was it possible for this "determined group of hackers" to have gone to so much trouble that they'd managed to alter the game content of an unalterable console?
"Oh," said Take Two Interactive.
So on Wednesday, an investigation by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board concluded that Take Two was, in fact, responsible for the sex content, which was found in all three versions of San Andreas: the PC, Xbox and PlayStation2 discs. Wildenborg's Hot Coffee download merely made the scenes accessible - something he'd claimed all along.
The ESRB have re-rated GTA San Andreas from M to AO (Adults Only) and forced retailers to pull the game from their shelves. Take Two Interactive meanwhile have admitted that actually, the previous press release was a complete lie, and yes they did leave the mini game in there, but apparently it's not their fault. No, it's the gamers fault for modding the game. In fact they're so serious about it not being their fault that they're preparing law suits against Wildenborg (the modder) and the manufacturers of the GameShark and ActionReplay units.
Because obviously it's better to alienate the game-buying public than just admit you're wrong.
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