Minigame controversy almost settled
Take Two Interactive's Rockstar Games has almost brought the long running dispute over the 'Hot Coffee' mod to a close after agreeing a preliminary settlement with the United States District Court to pay its class members up to $1.025 million in benefits.The money will be given to a number of consumers who issued a class action against the company after the 'Hot Coffee' modification, which allowed gamers access to a mini game portraying sexual intercourse, was uncovered in the 2005 version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
To be entitled to a settlement,the class members had to swear that they had:
(a) bought a copy of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas before July 20, 2005
(b) were offended and upset by the ability of consumers to modify and alter the game's content using the third-party Hot Coffee modification
(c ) would not have bought the game had they known that consumers could modify and alter the game's content using the third-party Hot Coffee modification
(d) would have returned the game, upon learning the game could be modified and altered, if they thought this possible.
Those people who did complain will receive either an edited copy of the game or $35 to cover the price of the game.
If this preliminary offer from Take Two is approved by the courts "all claims in these lawsuits will be dismissed without any admission of liability or wrongdoing by Take-Two or Rockstar."
"If the case had continued, we believe the court would have agreed that Take-Two was not liable for consumers acting independently to modify their games with third-party hardware and software to access normally inaccessible content," said Ben Feder, Chief Executive Officer of Take-Two. "Nonetheless, we believe it is in the best interest of the Company to avoid protracted and costly litigation to prove our case and to finally put this matter behind us."
