Los Angeles Sues Maker of Grand Theft Auto

Los Angeles wants firm to surrender profits

City acts over explicit content buried in code

Sacramento, CA - January 30, 2006: A report this morning states that the City of Los Angeles is intending to sue video game maker Take-Two Interactive Software over imbedded sex scenes in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The scenes are concealed in the game's computer code.

The game, released in 2004, is one of a series in which the player takes the role of a criminal who commits murder, deals in drugs and pimps prostitutes in a virtual Los Angeles. However, the makers, Take-Two Interactive Software, may have stepped over the line by embedding a game within a game called Hot Coffee in which the characters have explicit sex under the control of the player, who can alter position and viewpoint with a keyboard or joystick.

Marc J. Rauch - TACH Auto Central