One of the nation's most popular video games is under scrutiny following claims that it harbors hidden pornography.
The Entertainment Software Rating Board, an industry group, has launched an investigation into whether "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" contains explicit sex acts made viewable only by downloading a modification program.
The modification supposedly unlocks lurid imagery to a scene already notable for suggestive sound effects.
PC Version Modified
The modification, called "Hot Coffee" and written by a Dutch programmer, began appearing online last month. It alters only the PC versions of "Grand Theft Auto," developed by Rockstar Games, a subsidiary of game publisher Take-Two Interactive Software.
"Grand Theft Auto" has received heavy criticism for extremely violent content since its initial release last October. Then, last week, California state Assemblyman Leland Y. Yee, a Democrat, chided the ESRB for rating the game "Mature" instead of "Adults Only" and cited the game's alleged sexual content. He has advocated legal restrictions on sales of violent video games to children.
The nonprofit National Institute on Media and Family followed Yee's lead and issued its own warning on "Grand Theft Auto," citing what it calls "explicit pornographic" content.
Those criticisms helped spur the ESRB to announce it was looking into the claim "to determine if there has been a violation of ESRB rules and regulations requiring full disclosure of pertinent content," board President Patricia Vance said in a statement late last week.
"Mature" games are widely available to anyone age 17 and older. If the pornography claim proves true, availability of "Grand Theft Auto" would suffer. The PlayStation 2 version was last year's top video game, according to NPD Funworld, a game industry analyst.
'Mature' Is Enough
Rockstar Games says it's complying with the ESRB investigation and added in its statement that the existing "Mature" rating for "Grand Theft Auto" is appropriate and doesn't need revision.
Yet Patrick Wildenborg, the "Hot Coffee" programmer, said in a Boston Globe interview last weekend and referred to in industry trade publications online that his program merely opens hidden features in "Grand Theft Auto," instead of adds them.
Modification programs, or "mods," are not uncommon and attract considerable attention among avid game players because many add capabilities not available in the original PC versions of video games, thus extending the games' life spans and versatility.