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Take Two Shareholders to sue over Hot Coffee

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the controversy-is-good-fo-business dept.

casualsax3 writes "Take Two, the publisher of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, is facing more legal action over the game. Separately, two law firms have filed class-action lawsuits on behalf of shareholders who they say lost money due to the controversy about the game. This comes right on the heels of news that the Sex Workers Outreach Program is calling for a boycott of the game."

20 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. Relax! by Zardus · · Score: 4, Funny

    The shareholders should get together with the Sex Workers Outreach Program and get some relaxation time in!

    --
    You can mod your friends, you can mod your nose, but you can't mod your friend's nose.
  2. The problem is.. by thegrassyknowl · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The share holders are in dire need of the sex workers union. Anyone who is going to use this as an excuse to sue is fucking crazy. Hot Coffee didn't make them lose money. It publicised the game to a lot more people than ever before. I know people who paid for a copy to just see that extra bit.

    Americans are so fucking mad

    --
    I drink to make other people interesting!
    1. Re:The problem is.. by bergeron76 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      We're not mad, our government is.

      --
      Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
  3. The sad thing here is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's really clearly starting to look to me like the biggest mistake Take Two made with the hot coffee incident was admitting fault. If they'd just stood up and said "screw you, the content isn't in the game unless you mod it, and even after you mod it it's less extreme than content that already exists in other M games", fought the opportunistic politicians trying to exploit them, and fought the ESRB AO rating, they'd have come out of this much better. They'd have made a lot of enemies but at least they'd have managed to get some damage control out of it and at least that's something, the response they ultimately chose had no positive side effects at all.

    1. Re:The sad thing here is by westlake · · Score: 2, Insightful
      They'd have made a lot of enemies

      Take Two had all the enemies it could stand.

      It says something when upstate New York soccer moms, the Haitian poor of Miami, Las Vegas prostitutes and center-right politicians everywhere unite in a common cause.

      Take Two tried damage control.
      Then HC was found embedded in the console ports of the game...

    2. Re:The sad thing here is by supabeast! · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What you're clearly missing here is that Take-Two/Rockstar never had any chance at controlling this and coming out on top. It didn't matter what Take-Two/Rockstar said in their own defense, because this entire story exists because the American news media serves mainly to titilate its audience with twisted facts taken out of context followed by a lot of outright lies. And nobody was ever going to come to Take-Two/Rockstar's aid, because they're just a bunch of rich white nerds making games for a living, they don't fit into popular concepts of victims needing defense.

      Take-Two/Rockstar are just as much a victim of America's depraved acceptance of a media that's little better than the state-controlled media of facist regimes than it is the developer's own stupidity.

    3. Re:The sad thing here is by Sigma+7 · · Score: 2, Interesting
      What you're clearly missing here is that Take-Two/Rockstar never had any chance at controlling this and coming out on top. It didn't matter what Take-Two/Rockstar said in their own defense, because this entire story exists because the American news media serves mainly to titilate its audience with twisted facts taken out of context followed by a lot of outright lies


      Actually, they do - all they need to create is a bounty where the first person to produce said sex scene in an unmodified game gets a prize (e.g. $25000 - within most corporate advertising budgets as the media does much of the advertising for the company instead, leaving a massive surplus.)

      Perodically increase the bounty based on the number of negative press - which will make an impossible task much more lucrative. After all, if Hot Coffee is so popular/hyped, it should be easy to find without modifications, right?

      As long as the bounty still stands unachieved (regardless of cash prise or otherwise), it is a dent in the credibility. Even if it doesn't have legal weight (IANAL), it still inches public opinion in their favour.

      BTW, I'm really suprised that this game was not banned several times over.
    4. Re:The sad thing here is by kreyg · · Score: 2, Insightful
      The main point is that it is impossible to access the mini-game through any mechanism provided by the game as distributed - you need to either modify the game or the save file. It's not something you can stumble across accidentally. Unless you are intentionally looking for it, you'll never see it.

      If you are intentionally looking for such things, it's vastly easier to find something racier on the net than what is effectively a Ken and Barbie doll suggestively animated. Regardless of any wrongdoing, the whole issue has been blown so far out of proportion it boggles the mind.

      --
      sig fault
    5. Re:The sad thing here is by KDR_11k · · Score: 2, Insightful

      What makes you think it was an unauthorized action that landed the code in there? Isn't it more likely that the feature was planned and approved but as the game drew closer to finishing the manager responsible got cold feet and ordered it to be removed again?

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
  4. Jack Thompson must be happy by technoextreme · · Score: 2, Funny

    Didn't he buy stock in Take Two? Im sure his name is right on the top of both suits.

    --
    Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
  5. Attention whiners and lawyers: by Noxal · · Score: 2, Funny

    GET OVER IT.
    With or without the help of a sex worker.

  6. Re:wrong... by the-amazing-blob · · Score: 4, Informative

    It also made the ignorant section (aka majority) of the public aware of the ratings system, and the fact that those little black and white boxes mean something. Some parents began checking to see what title their child wanted, and what the rating was. Decrease in sales from the fact that the market of 12 year olds decreased.

  7. So.. by Turn-X+Alphonse · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So you sue a company, bring up more press about it and cost them money on lawyers... because they lost you money?

    This is going to cost them even more money. The other share holders should sue them for this.

    --
    I like muppets.
    1. Re:So.. by surprise_audit · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Yeah, that about sums it up. I would only add, that suing a company's who's stock you own is exactly like shooting yourself in the foot. The company may fire the programmers, then their next game may not be such a big seller, the stock tanks and the shareholders lose *more* money.

      In the interests of poetic justice, any settlement the company makes with the shareholders ought to be in the form of more shares... Imagine taking *that* for a spin through the courts if/when the stock takes a hit: "Boo hoo, they gave us shares and now they're not worth so much because they fired the programmers that we sued them over last time..."

  8. Re:Loose more money then. by DrSkwid · · Score: 2, Informative

    HEY it's LOSE

    yes LOSE

    --
    There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
  9. Reality Check by webmistressrachel · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Grand Theft Auto has made millions for these people. You don't get points for beating up prostitutes any more than you get points for beating up anybody else, in the form of cash dropped. The missions (which never seem to involve killing hookers) reward much more richly. The game encourages the forming of relationships, and protecting girls, for which, again, you will get many more rewards. So please explain why this game, above others, in it's unmodded retail form, upsets prostitutes and shareholders?

    --
    This tagline was transcoded to result in at least one smirk. If you experience failure to smirk, please consult your Gen
    1. Re:Reality Check by Dachannien · · Score: 2, Funny

      So please explain why this game, above others, in it's unmodded retail form, upsets prostitutes and shareholders?

      Because prostitutes and shareholders will do anything for a quick buck.

  10. Aw, diddums by payndz · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Did the poor widdle shareholders lose money when they thought all they could do was win, win, win?

    What happened to 'the value of shares may go down as well as up', or didn't they read the small print? Boo hoo. The stock market is basically upmarket gambling. They gambled, and they lost. Cry me a river.

    --
    You must think in Russian.
  11. Coincidence? by Captain+Entendre · · Score: 2, Funny
    two law firms have filed class-action lawsuits

    Lawyers screw people for money.
    Prostitutes screw people for money.

    If this keeps up, Take-Two is going to be sued by politicians next.

  12. Precident? by Loconut1389 · · Score: 2, Funny

    McDonald's got sued over Hot Coffee too, and we all know how that went!