Take-Two Faces $20 Million Settlement For "Hot Coffee" Scandal

eldavojohn writes "Take-Two has settled with shareholders to the tune of $20 million dollars over the 'Hot Coffee' debacle. Ars brings the details on how a badly-handled situation resulted in shareholders suing Take-Two. '[The scandal] led to a media panic because it was assumed the sexual content was easy for children to get to (it wasn't) or that sex themes were becoming common in games (they aren't). Still, the lawsuit shows how badly the company bungled the situation, and it's easy to see how Take-Two's management directly caused shareholders to lose money. ... The suit alleged far more than a single misstep with Hot Coffee, however. "Take-Two's management was not cooperating or assisting with the Company's audit committee and was failing to keep the Board of Directors informed of important issues or failing to do so in a timely fashion," the complaint stated. Inventory was misstated, as was software development costs."

Comments

That's what you get

[QuantumG]

for having shareholders. Raising capital is a necessary evil, but hell, grow organically if you can.

Re:That's what you get

[sopssa]

Its funny that you shoot people, hijack cars, drive over people and do all kinds of illegal things but when theres normal activities like sex that all people do, everyone goes "oh my god things like that shouldn't be allowed!" and bring in the lawsuits.

Weird world, or should I say weird country.

Re:That's what you get

[QuantumFTL]

I'm pretty sure Take Two is doing just fine, even considering this. Also, nothing says "edgy" like "we got sued for something that wasn't even part of our game, because we're just that badass."

Seriously, I'm sure the execs are laughing all the way to the bank. And the shareholders, well WTF do you expect if you invest in a company that makes games where you can get your money back after fornicating with a professional via vehicular homicide?

Re:That's what you get

[Pentium100]

GTA SA had the same rating as Manhunt, the game in which you brutally kill people, while having a good look at how you do it (like strangling with a wire, or cutting the throat with the same wire or may more ways of killing people), in GTA SA you can run people over with your car, shoot them, burn them, cut them, explode them and so on. Both games actually depend on you doing that (unlike, say, Postal2 which you can finish without killing anyone). So all this is acceptable to allow people that are 17+ to play. But if you show two people pretending to have sex (IIRC the hot coffee mod showed people fully clothed) then what were you thinking, we can't allow THIS and people would have to wait a year before being allowed to play this game (18+ vs 17+).

Really really weird country.

Re:That's what you get

[Opportunist]

Make a movie. Kiss a pair of tits and it's rated M. Chop 'em off and it's PG13.

Nicholson said it afaik. And he's damn right. It's more acceptable in movies to kill people than to fuck them. Let's be honest here, imagine killing spree scenes would be like the average sex scenes, we'd get to see people running around with their index fingers pointing at their enemies and shouting "pew pew".

Re:That's what you get

[MistrX]

Oh good, I wasn't the only one that noticed that. I always wondered why we can have TV with murdering and killing as the order of the day while people are busy with a form of 'love' (like making it) and everything is in an uproar.

I blame the church for trolling at people making people and promoting wars as a way to spread faith.

Go forth and reproduce!

Re:That's what you get

[Jurily]

Make a movie. Kiss a pair of tits and it's rated M. Chop 'em off and it's PG13.

Show a penis and it's R. After all, it's not like half the children actually have one.

Re:That's what you get

[mwvdlee]

Where does that $20 million come from anyway? Isn't this just the shareholders paying the money to themselves?

I wouldn't be surprised if the whole 'hot coffee' thing actually increased profits for the shareholders. In fact I'd be surprised if it wasn't!

Re:That's what you get

[mwvdlee]

Sex on TV is only allowed on the condition that it is part of a rape, rape/murder or other type of violent act. Even implying such a thing as consentual sex is just plain unamerican.

America's Decline.

[purpledinoz]

How is this even possible? No matter how badly Take-Two screwed up, the fact is, the game had to be hacked to get it to work! Regardless, who cares? Why are Americans so hung up on these type of issues, such as wardrobe malfunctions, gay marriage, steroids in baseball? In the meantime, bankers have effectively stolen trillions of dollars directly out of the pockets of every American. Less and less people are able to afford health care. Thousands of Americans are needlessly dying in Iraq. Middle class jobs are being decimated. The list is long... America is screwed.

Proof how screwed up society is

[piltdownman84]

I still can't believe Rockstar had a mandatory recall on a game where you play a criminal, and the games primary objectives including assisinations, pimping, thieving and selling dugs because a third party patch enabled clothed sex scenes. Its almost so daft that I can't believe it. All this uproar over something that everyone does, in a game that glorifies acts thats are illegal almost everywhere and seen as unacceptable by almost everyone on this planet.

Fundamentalists

[Anonymous Coward]

This is what you get in any fundamentalist country.