HOLY CRAP!!! They pulled GTA:SA

Should I go out to my local CC and buy a copy of the XB version and keep it sealed?

What are the thoughts on this being valuable in the future?
 
[quote name='evilmax17']Should I go out to my local CC and buy a copy of the XB version and keep it sealed?

What are the thoughts on this being valuable in the future?[/QUOTE]

Good job at reading the thread..

There's millions of copies that have already been sold, I think a censored version of the game would end up being more rare.
 
So wait. They are putting something on the game now that says AO and will later be releasing a fixed M rated one?
 
[quote name='Scorch']Right, but if there's restrictions placed on the modification of games, there's really no options they could have. Gameshark and Action Replay would both fold.[/QUOTE]

That would makes sense. Started thinking about that right after your post, but I wasn't sure if that was what you meant exactly. This could quite possibly be so, but then what about the rest of the modding community. I have friend that did a couple not long ago and nothing happened to him.
 
[quote name='evilmax17']Should I go out to my local CC and buy a copy of the XB version and keep it sealed?

What are the thoughts on this being valuable in the future?[/QUOTE]

:rofl: It was bound to happen, but I think you're just bein sarcastic.
 
[quote name='Scorch']Good job at reading the thread..

There's millions of copies that have already been sold, I think a censored version of the game would end up being more rare.[/QUOTE]
No i know, but the XB version? It's only been out for a month or so, so it could theoretically hold some longterm value.

As far as I see it, this will just open the floodgates on AO material in games. If there was ever a game franchise that would make AO "okay" and accessable to the masses, it would be GTA.

I don't think this will be the retail death sentence that some predict. Either the retailers will change their policies, or suffer some serious money loss.
 
[quote name='The VGM']So wait. They are putting something on the game now that says AO and will later be releasing a fixed M rated one?[/QUOTE]

Things are confusing at the moment, I understand. According to Take 2 via GS, "This version will retain the original ESRB M-rating and is expected to be available during the Company's fourth fiscal quarter."

"This" version is the new, "hot coffee"-less version. So, to sum up:

The version most people have now, and will probably be oversold on eBay for the next three weeks: Rated AO.

The new version, manufactured without the "hot coffee" minigame accessible at all, available "Q3," which could be as soon as August and as late as early November: Rated M.

So, in an ideal world, you *can* tell the difference between the two titles. Unfortunately, it's only a sticker, so the PO copies on the market now just may be indistinguishable from the PO copies of the revised edition. OTOH, it may be a moot point, since they store the discs for PO titles behind the counter at EB or GS. Just like you might get a GH or PH disc in a standard case, you might get one version of San Andreas in the opposite case due to employee bumbling. This is only going to get messier, it would appear.
 
I still think this is a little too convienent for Rockstar. They thrive on controversy. They've been wanting this for years. You can notice them testing the waters for San Andreas in some of the games from the past two years.. Manhunt with the violence, Max Payne 2 with the language (lots of F words).. after MP2 was accepted, it "opened the floodgates" so to speak, and there's F bombs in a lot of games now, from San Andreas to Unreal Championship 2.

I'm not calling conspiracy on anything, but it almost seems like they wanted someone to find it by leaving it in there. I find it hard to believe that it was "accidentally" left in on the PS2 version (JUST the PS2 version would be acceptable), but for it to be ported to both XBox and PC and them not notice it.. yeah, right.
 
[quote name='The VGM']So wait. They are putting something on the game now that says AO and will later be releasing a fixed M rated one?[/QUOTE]
Yes, they're relabeling the current copies to reflect this (or those stores can pull them and not sell them) and Rockstar will be taking out the code and putting their new security features on the disc and releasing that as M rated version this fall.
 
Ah, I wish I had gotten one for $30 back when it was on sale. Are they doing this for the PC version aswell?
 
I can only imagine the countless lives ruined from watching blurry, pixelated digital characters with about a polygon count of about 17 each rub up against each other. Jesus Christ, they get away with more on Desperate Housewives...
 
[quote name='The VGM']Ah, I wish I had gotten one for $30 back when it was on sale. Are they doing this for the PC version aswell?[/QUOTE]

Read the first page.
 
This is all exactly what Rockstar wants. They have to keep their title of "Controversial Game Maker" because controversy sells.
 
I don't think the game is getting changed to AO.

In its statement, Take-Two outlined its response to the commerce-limiting AO rating. "[Take-Two subsidiary] Rockstar Games has ceased manufacturing of the current version of the title and will begin working on a version of the game with enhanced security to prevent the 'hot coffee' modifications," it read. "This version will retain the original ESRB M-rating and is expected to be available during the Company's fourth fiscal quarter." The quarter in question runs from August to October, 2005. The company will also release a patch for the currently available PC version of the game which will lock out the sex minigames."

I guess they are re-releasing the M version later with the stuffs removed.
 
Wow, this is so retarded I cannot even put it into words. I thought this game should've gotten the AO rating to begin with. I mean, if a game where you can run over old people and shoot hookers and shit like that doesn't deserve an AO rating, what does? Oh yeah! A game with *gasp* sex! I'll never understand why people in this country are so god damn stupid that they are more concerned about seeing some titties than they are about seeing the wanton slaughter of other human beings.
 
[quote name='Scorch']I still think this is a little too convienent for Rockstar. They thrive on controversy. They've been wanting this for years. You can notice them testing the waters for San Andreas in some of the games from the past two years.. Manhunt with the violence, Max Payne 2 with the language (lots of F words).. after MP2 was accepted, it "opened the floodgates" so to speak, and there's F bombs in a lot of games now, from San Andreas to Unreal Championship 2.

I'm not calling conspiracy on anything, but it almost seems like they wanted someone to find it by leaving it in there. I find it hard to believe that it was "accidentally" left in on the PS2 version (JUST the PS2 version would be acceptable), but for it to be ported to both XBox and PC and them not notice it.. yeah, right.[/QUOTE]

I agree entirely with you. It just seems too much of a coincedence.
 
[quote name='hiccupleftovers']I agree entirely with you. It just seems too much of a coincedence.[/QUOTE]

Then again, Rockstar is really lazy with their ports. I was looking through files on GTA3 on PC with a TXD editor, looking at the text strings of all the text in the game, and there was still a file in there that said "Please insert your PS2 memory card".. it had some stuff to where the line was disabled, but that just goes to show how lazy they actually are in their ports.
 
[quote name='Scorch']I still think this is a little too convienent for Rockstar. They thrive on controversy. They've been wanting this for years. You can notice them testing the waters for San Andreas in some of the games from the past two years.. Manhunt with the violence, Max Payne 2 with the language (lots of F words).. after MP2 was accepted, it "opened the floodgates" so to speak, and there's F bombs in a lot of games now, from San Andreas to Unreal Championship 2.

I'm not calling conspiracy on anything, but it almost seems like they wanted someone to find it by leaving it in there. I find it hard to believe that it was "accidentally" left in on the PS2 version (JUST the PS2 version would be acceptable), but for it to be ported to both XBox and PC and them not notice it.. yeah, right.[/QUOTE]


I agree its not a conspiracy, but I see this actually helping sales. I also agree that they probably didn't care that they left it in, they have done this before with the other games in the series where people have hacked characters (that terrorist guy in GTA III) or cars that were cut from the final game. I think its kind of cool that they would leave something in there for people to who have the time and desire to find. Its also clever of them if they left it hidden just to get around the rating for the game. The majority of people who wanted this game probably already have it, I know I played it to death a while ago. If there was no mainstream attention focused on this "hot coffee" thing, I bet most people wouldn't have ever heard about it let alone tried to unlock it in their game. I heard about it a while back but never thought of it as a big deal. I bet even most hardcore gamers or perverts never even bothered with this trick in the first place.


I also think its kinda dumb that a goofy sex minigame (aren't the people clothed anyway?) is what gives this game an AO rating. You can do some pretty crazy things in this game, many of which are illegal and would be morally wrong if done in real life, but consensual sex is what they consider to be the worst?
 
[quote name='GuilewasNK']I saw more in sex ed in high school than in that "hot coffee" vid.[/QUOTE]

I saw more when I was having sex in high school.
 
What really makes me wonder about the parents even more is the fact most of them who have children who would be effected by this, they grew up in the age they SHOULD know more about what video games are about....should they not?

It all comes back down to parents needing something else to raise their kids and blame their own lack of bringing them up on, the media's need for the quick kill in reporting, and Hillary needing something else to do since her husband only deals in interns.
 
what is the difference between selling a mature game to a 17 year old, or a AO game to a 18 year year old...Is that one year making the youth of today, mature enough to handle that in a game. I hope that my copy goes up big time in price, and I can dump in on ebay...and get a new edited version
 
[quote name='GuilewasNK']Your government at work folks.....:roll:

Gee, I wonder why the Libertarian Party has been gaining followers?[/QUOTE]

:roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll:

The government didn't do anything, smart guy.
 
Ryan, it's not about the age, it's about the distribution, it's just a clear cut line.

But yeah uhm as for speculations that this was a publicity stunt, remember Take 2 is a publicly traded company and if it was a publicity stunt it didn't help all that much since they've taken decent losses because of the halting of production and various changes. Basically as you can see thier stock today has dropped because of this. Kind of a high price to pay for "controversy image" They already have. So personally I'm inclined to say it isn't a publicity stunt =p.

Legaly I think they should have been ok since when you play the game you are agreeing to the EULA and the mod basically violates that so how can u complain eh =p?
 
[quote name='GuilewasNK']Your government at work folks.....:roll:

Gee, I wonder why the Libertarian Party has been gaining followers?[/QUOTE]


Ah yes, they have dozens of supporters now.
 
All this does is seperate the pervs form the people who just wanted to play the game.
Who else would pay 150$ for "rare recalled pr0n GTA:SA" on ebay in a few months but a sad perv who doesn't see much skin? I'm guessing the same people who buy hentai and those x rated anime games :p
Meanwhile the fixed ones will go down in price and the cags win cause they get to play the game cheap.
 
The government didn't do anything, smart guy.
Click to expand...

Hey smart guy, you need to read up a little yourself.

Hillary Clinton ring a bell? No? Google her name and Grand Theft Auto, that'll get you up to speed. This wasn't even an issue until she got involved.
 
Yes, walmart will not carry it, but how hard is it to find an outlet that will sell it in a town where walmart won't. Where there is a walmart, their will be either be an EB, Gamestop, FYE, Best Buy, Circuit City, or some regional store that will carry the AO game. While I might be in the minority, but I have never purchased a game at Walmart. I am sure they sell a lot, but doesn't Walmart keep their sales figures off the NPC list that is out monthly. It is all a moot point, as it appears they will stop making the game, take out the code, and sell it at the Mature theme.
 
Omg! Is It Rare?

not reading 5 pages....suing AR is BULLSCHITT, plain and simple.
 
with over 5 millions copies sold I dont think the ESRB will have much control on people attaining the "content" lol, Im just waiting for the "Hot Coffee" version to show up on Ebay...:roll:
 
[quote name='Epic Wolf']with over 5 millions copies sold I dont think the ESRB will have much control on people attaining the "content" lol, Im just waiting for the "Hot Coffee" version to show up on Ebay...:roll:[/QUOTE]

um.. every version is the "hot coffee" version.
 
[quote name='evanft']:roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll:

The government didn't do anything, smart guy.[/QUOTE]

See rabidmonkey's post....smartguy... :)

http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1161105&postcount=80

[quote name='Tromack']Ah yes, they have dozens of supporters now.[/QUOTE]

I said that in jest but shit like this GTA business is why I am not enamored with the major parties. None of them play the games, none know how to access the content, yet they feel the need to vent an "outrage" for something they are totally ignorant of.
 
[quote name='Scorch']um.. every version is the "hot coffee" version.[/QUOTE]

That's true, but the "M" one requires the Action Replay. I think the future copies that are "AO" won't require an Action Replay, but it might actually be included.
 
[quote name='GuilewasNK']Your government at work folks.....:roll:

Gee, I wonder why the Libertarian Party has been gaining followers?[/QUOTE]

Dude, you should be thankful your government is so busy tackling all the important issues - like sex scenes in video games and baseball players using steroids!
 
[quote name='ryanbph']Yes, walmart will not carry it, but how hard is it to find an outlet that will sell it in a town where walmart won't. Where there is a walmart, their will be either be an EB, Gamestop, FYE, Best Buy, Circuit City, or some regional store that will carry the AO game. While I might be in the minority, but I have never purchased a game at Walmart. I am sure they sell a lot, but doesn't Walmart keep their sales figures off the NPC list that is out monthly. It is all a moot point, as it appears they will stop making the game, take out the code, and sell it at the Mature theme.[/QUOTE]
I'd be willing to bet that roughly 90-95% of the chain stores are going to pull the game to avoid the potential wrath of parents or politicians.

Local stores? Possibly.

GameStop? EB? Hell no. I've heard that GameStop has already sent out a memo telling their stores to pull the game, and I see pretty much all of the national chains following suit. Most of those stores tend to shy away from AO games, and I'd guess that management wouldn't want their chain to be known as the one that sells those dirty, disgusting, sex-filled games.
 
[quote name='zionoverfire']meh if they do pull it a new version will probably be out soon.[/QUOTE]

captain7hw.jpg
 
[quote name='zionoverfire']meh if they do pull it a new version will probably be out soon.[/QUOTE]
All of the stories I've seen so have said Q3, so it could be a little while.
 
Clinton became involved after Leland Yee (CA state assembly) began questioning how legit the rating system was. In short, he argued that the ESRB is under undustry pressure to avoid "AO" ratings due to the very arguments many of you are bringing up (fewer stores distributing, which leads to fewer sales, which sucks for a traded company). Did Yee have any evidence of the ESRB's complicity? Of course not, he's a politician.

Is it an important issue? Well, of course it is. Rockstar *still* refuses to admit that it's their code, even if the game is playable on all versions of the game. Others have brought up a South Park cartoon (perhaps an uncensored one?) on a disc of Tiger Woods 1999 for Playstation. In both cases, the data was not meant to be accessed by legitimate means. Since the data exists on your property, the software you bought, should it be considered when evaluating the software for a rating? OR, should only the content that is *supposed* to be accessed be considered for a rating? If you can get over the very basic fact that this is legally very ambiguous, you'd be more understanding of government's interest in this. Is the puritanical approach to sex, combined with ambivalence to violence, silly or backwards? Of course, but that's our society and that's our government.

Every time I read about Clinton and see the words "intern," "blowjob," or something similar I can't help but understand what Dave Chappelle goes through when some sack of shit approaches him and yells "I'M RICK JAMES, BITCH!!! HAW HAW HAW!!!" Really, if you want to bring something of value to the conversation, do it. Some of you bring up that there are far more important things for our government to look at. I won't disagree with that, but I will argue that the legal ambiguity of this scenario is not something to be trivialized. Politicians may not know shit about games, but many of you can't seem to get over your biased stance as a gamer to recognize that this is a rather peculiar case that deserves looking into.

On the other hand, if the only thing that you can say about Clinton has to do with her husband's sex life, I recommend you leave the thread and go play with some Duplo blocks. You were boring in 1999, ok?

I'm concerned that stores refuse to sell "AO" games. It's a peculiar standard, when it's common practice for shitty movies to add a few bad words, 17 seconds of breasts, and call it the "unrated" version for a DVD rerelease. It's interesting that we can handle "unrated," but "NC-17" or "AO" are partnered with the devil socially. They're just symbols, for fuck's sake. They are powerful symbols, but why be bothered that the government is looking into this, when one of the major causal factors behind this is that major retail outlets are more than happy to sell you guns and bibles, and maybe a little titty, but not a lotta titty. fucking pansies, the lot of them.

EDIT: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/postquery?bill_number=ab_450&sess=CUR&house=A&author=yee
This includes information from a piece of legislation from this May where Lee proposed fining sales of violent games to minors. Perhaps he formed his hatred for the ESRB early, since ratings don't seem to be mentioned in ANY of the documentation that helps define a violent game. Hmmm.
 
[quote name='rabidmonkeys']Hey smart guy, you need to read up a little yourself.

Hillary Clinton ring a bell? No? Google her name and Grand Theft Auto, that'll get you up to speed. This wasn't even an issue until she got involved.[/QUOTE]
http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/07/08/news_6128759.html

It was actually as a result of California Assemblyman Leland Yee that the ESRB investigated the Hot Coffee mod. Hilary Clinton pushed it along.
 
Right before I got off work tonight (CC), I got an email from corporate stating that GTA: SA has had its rating changed from M to AO, and since we aren't allowed to carry AO games, it must be pulled from shelves. Honestly, I've never seen ANY store that carries AO games, so where will people be able to find SA now?
 
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