ESRB investigating GTA San Andreas

Written by John Scalzo on July 11, 2005

News: The ESRB wants to get to the bottom of just what is going on with the "Hot Coffee" mod.

A few weeks ago, word leaked out that the PC version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas included unused code for a sex minigame that shows the main character, C.J. Johnson, having sex with his girlfriend. This code was supposedly unlocked by a mod titled "Hot Coffee", which now has many politicians a little hot under the collar.

The ESRB has responded by investigating just how much truth there is to the hidden code question. It is against ESRB rules to knowingly hide extreme sequences from the rating board to secure a lower rating. If there investigation finds Rockstar left the code in the game on purpose, it may change the rating of the game from Mature to Adults Only (AO). No console game has ever been rated AO.

The mod requires a hard drive to work, so the question of if this code is in the PS2 version may never be answered. An Xbox version is considered possible, but one has not surfaced yet.

There is some debate over just how much "hidden code" the Hot Coffee mod uses and Rockstar suggests that the entire thing is being created by the mod.

"We also feel confident that the investigation will uphold the original rating of the game, as the work of the mod community is beyond the scope of either publishers or the ESRB," Rockstar said in the statement.

The ESRB has said they have changed ratings in the past after undisclosed content came to light, but I can't recall any such instances. If any readers could help me out I'd greatly appreciate it.