Beware of Secret Downloads.
Take Two Interactive and subsidiary publisher Rock Star Games have been deflecting the firestorm fueled by their latest video game release, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (”GTA”).

Yesterday, the Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification revoked its original adult rating for the game, making GTA illegal to sell, advertise, or distribute in the country. This follows a decision by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (”FTC”) to re-rate the game after it was alterted to “secret downloads” readily available on the web that added additional sex and violence scenes dubbed “Hot Coffee.”

The revocation by Australia coupled with the re-rating by the FTC has prompted certain large retailers, like Wal-Mart Stores to remove the game from sale. This has forced the company to ratchet down their sales predictions for the game by $40 Million.

Take Two is about to take two more: PC World reports that the company is facing two class-action lawsuits from plaintiffs alleging that the company engaged in false advertising and fraud when it failed to disclose hidden content that would have otherwise classified the game as adult. Ouch. That scalds.

Practice Pointer: Companies should be encouraged to participate honestly in the self-regulation process.

This entry was posted by Tsan Abrahamson on Tuesday, August 2nd, 2005 at 3:42 pm and is filed under Advertising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.