James Delahunty
28 Jul 2005 21:10
And just when everybody thought this whole thing would start to quieten down, an 85 year old woman from New York has filed a lawsuit against Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive over the hidden sex minigames in the code of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. It seems that she went out and bought a copy of San Andreas for her 14 year old grandson when it had an M rating. Of course as we all know now, due to an investigation the Entertainment Software Ratings Board that rating has since changed to AO for Adult only.
Florence Cohen accused Take-Two of engaging in "false, misleading and deceptive practices". She also claims she is suing them on behalf of all consumers; what a concerned kind caring woman she must be! Despite the fact that the M rating actually meant the game isn’t suitable for a 14 year old, I guess Rockstar's little "error" made her earlier mistake of issuing it to her grandson just that bit worse.
Laurence D. Paskowitz, the lawyer who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Cohen, said no parent would knowingly buy an adult-only video game for their children. "They should really make sure this doesn't happen again," he said. "The least this company can do is offer refunds." However, the thing he is forgetting to mention is that Rockstar or Take-Two never offered a way for these minigames to be unlocked, this was all the work of a third party.
Is this all being taken far too seriously? I think it is. I can understand the ESRB's annoyance and their decision to give the AO rating, but in order to use these minigames, one has to find and use the patch on the game. It was simply a mistake and it shouldn't have happened. The unmodified version of the game doesn't allow you to use these minigames at all.
Source:
The Associated Press