Rockstar sued by grandmother
p2pnet.net News- Florence Cohen, an 85-year-old New York grandmother, is suing Grand Theft Auto’s Rockstar Games and parent company Take-Two Interactive Software, “on behalf of herself and all consumers nationwide”.
She’s accusing the company of, “false advertising, consumer deception and unfair business practices,” says the Associated Press.
Cohen, who’s looking for unspecified damages, says she bought GTA: San Andreas in late 2004 for her grandson. At the time, it was rated ‘M’ for mature, for players 17 and older, says AP.
She didn’t know about the secret animated sex module.
Take-Two initially lied about the hidden sex section, but later admitted it was indeed part of GTA: San Andreas.
The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) reluctantly upped GTA Sex to AO for Adults Only and it was subsequently taken off sales shelves.
Rockstar and Take Two, “regret that consumers may have been exposed to content that was not intended to be accessible in the playable version of ‘Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’,” Take Two said in a patently disengenuous statement quoted by AP.
Fraudulent accounting
But lying is nothing new to Take-Two or the people behind it.
Last month SEC ( Securities and Exchange Commission) filed a fraudulent accounting practices claim against: Take-Two Interactive Software, the company’s former chairman and ceo, Ryan Brant, its former executive vpt and coo Larry Muller, its former cfo, James David, Jr, and current vp of sales Robert Blau.
The SEC says “Those practices allowed Take-Two to consistently meet or exceed analysts’ predictions regarding its earnings per share during all four quarters of fiscal year 2000 and to meet certain financial targets which triggered the payment of substantial bonuses to Brant, Muller and David.”
According to the commission’s complaint, “Take-Two systematically recognized sales revenue from approximately 180 ‘parking’ transactions in which the company, at or near the end of fiscal quarters or year end, shipped hundreds of thousands of video games to distributors who had no obligation to pay for the product, fraudulently recorded the shipments as if they were sales, and then accepted return of the games in subsequent reporting periods.
“In many cases, Take-Two created fraudulent invoices to disguise the returns as ‘purchases of assorted product.’ Take-Two also improperly recognized sales revenue for games that were still being manufactured and could not in fact be shipped, and in fiscal year 2000, improperly accounted for the acquisition of two video game publishers.”
Take-Two’s fraudulent accounting practices, “allowed it to improperly recognize approximately $60 million in revenue during 2000 and 2001, and report after-tax fiscal year 2000 earnings that were inflated by $20 million,” states the SEC.
The company will pay $8.75 million in penalties and more than $5.1 million in “disgorgement and prejudgment interest”.
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See:-
Associated Press – Grandmother sues game maker over hidden sex in ‘GTA’, July 27, 2005
explicit sex module – San Andreas and Hot Coffee, p2pnet, July 9, 2005
AO for Adults Only – Grand Sex Auto gets AO rating, p2pnet, July 21, 2005
SEC – SEC SUES TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE, INC. AND FOUR SENIOR EXECUTIVES FOR ACCOUNTING FRAUD, June 9, 2005
Ryan Brant – Take down Take-Two, p2pnet, January 2, 2004
July 28th, 2005 at 6:12 pm
I notice you forgot to mention that the boy was only 14 at the time, so he shouldn’t really have been given the game to begin with.
“At the time, it was rated ‘M’ for mature, for players 17 and older, says AP.”
Another think worth mentioning is that the “sex mini-game” in question was not included as playable content but required a small hack to unlock, and even then all the characters involved are fully clothed. This whole thing has been blown way out of proportion.
July 28th, 2005 at 6:41 pm
You beat me to it.
Grandson was in fact 14.
This is a pretty sizable “omission” from this article.
If an article is going to talk about truth, it should tell
all of it, not just the sensationalized media version.
July 28th, 2005 at 6:57 pm
The stupid old woman made the mistake in the first place of giving the game to a kid… Its her fault completely…
This is just another case of a greedy person trying to make money on the publicity of a companies mistakes…
I hope this suit is thrown out… >_> =P
July 28th, 2005 at 7:01 pm
and she probably doesn’t even know the complete details of the GTA scandle…
Her knowing about the sex minigame didn’t cause her any harm… and probably didn’t cause any harm to her grandchild either!!… I’m sure he didn’t even know it was there! XD
A lot of people dont know the mini game exists, even if they have the game!
Because the game is rated M, she shouldnt have given it to a 14yo… no matter what is actually in the game! its her fault!
July 29th, 2005 at 2:19 am
I never would have known about the mini-game, if the
media hadn’t blasted it all over the news in their righteous
outrage.
Basically,
The “screamers” made certain that every 14 year old
possible knew of the existence of the mod.
Maybe THEY should be the ones sued for advertising it ….
just a thought.
July 29th, 2005 at 5:04 am
Maybe she shoudn’t have given it to a 14 year old, but a 17 year old should not have acess to a mini sex game either. And a 17 year old probably could figure out how to acess it.
The fact of the matter is, the company lied and they should be held responsible. It’s their fault completely. What ever happened to truth in advertising? Huh? I guess all you people that responded negatively liked being lied to. I guess it was alright that Clinton lied to the country about Monica Lewinsky. A person or a company are only as good as their word. Maybe you should all think about that!!!!!
July 29th, 2005 at 5:46 am
as much as its Rockstar’s fault…
Any parent that gives this game to a 14yo… whether or not it has sex in it… deservers to be punished… and certainly doens’t get the right to sue the company, since they gave it to a 14 YO!!
July 29th, 2005 at 6:18 am
I am suprised that no one has mentioned the fact that it is very much like the RIAA in the announcement of each and every “bust” of p2p’ers it is loudly announced, splashed all over the media, in much the same manner.
Now all the “I know how you should live your life better than you” folks made sure threre was an issue about the contents and it made a big splash with their help across the media in much the same manner. GTA didn’t help matters by lying either but that was their choice and it just fed fuel to the fire. The end result is all the political figures running around with a “we gotta do something about this” attitude. In such a manner the legislators are being guided down the path with the rest of the populace looking around in shocked amazement at the end result a few months later.
I much agree that the grandmother has no case and if she is stupid enough to go this route will find that she is the one brought up on charges. There is always someone looking for a chestnut puller at a fire, there just has to be a sucker to act the part.
October 28th, 2006 at 8:13 am
Isn’t the age gap between Mature and adults only, just one year?