Modding

"The Hot Coffee" mod (Grand Theft Auto-San Andreas)
Rockstar North created huge controversy and received a thrashing from politicians and lawnmakers when a normally inaccessible mini game was released in 2005 along with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas game for Microsoft Windows. Public awareness of the existence of the mini game arrived with the release of the "Hot Coffee" mod which enables access to the mini game  The controversy arose when politicians prompted the game to be re-rated and pulled from some shelves due to explicit, adult themed content that the mini game encapsulated  Although the "Hot Coffee" mini game was completely disabled and its existence was only highlighted after the mod's release for the PC version on June 9, 2005, the assets for the mini game were also discovered in both the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions of the game, and people found ways to enable the mini game via console video game hacking tools. On July 20, 2005, the ESRB announced that it was changing the rating of GTA:SA from Mature (M) to Adults Only 18+, however Rockstar stated that it would discontinue manufacturing the current version of the game, and produce a new version that would not include the content that is unlocked by the Hot Coffee mod and on 20th July 2005 re-rated the game to a Mature 17+ rating. There was very little reaction in Europe. The game was already classified as 18+ prior to the release of the mod. Unlike USA, many European countries operate the same classification as they do to films- following the rule that it is an offence to sell games with adult-themed content to people under the classified age rating. Due to this, there was huge recall of the GTA:SA games that had already been released which had a massive impact on retailer sales and Rockstar North alike. On the 21st of July, the day after the rating change, North American chain stores and retailers, (which accounted for every major retailer in the United States and approximately 85% of the game's market in the country) removed the PC and console versions of the game from their store shelves, either re-stickering the box with the new rating, or returning it to the Publishers and Developers (Take Two Intertive). There was less of a reaction in th EU however. In Europe, the game was already an 18+ before the discovery of the mod. Unlike the US, many European nations operate the same classification as they do to films - it is a criminal offence to sell adult-only games to people below the age of the rating. In December 2005 after the huge issue that this mod had stirred up, Senators Hillary Clinton, Joe Lieberman and Evan Bayh introduced the 'Family Entertainment Protection Act', which called for a 'federal mandate enforcement of the ESRB ratings system in order to protect children from inappropriate content'. This reaction proved how huge of a problem this mod had become - the government were even involved.