Essay on Rockstar North Is A British 3

Submitted By wesleyyu
Words: 625
Pages: 3

Rockstar Nort, is a British developer of computer and video games based in Edinburgh, Part of the Rockstar Games family since 1999, Rockstar North is home to the ground-breaking Grand Theft Auto Series, which are some of the best-selling games of this console generation. There is no doubt that Rockstar North is one of the preeminent games developer in the world. The aim of this report is to discuss the crises brought by a game patch called “Hot Coffee mod” and how Rockstar North responded. In early 2005, it was revealed that the game "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" contained a graphic sexual mini-game. Many users found that the main character of the game could engage in sex with a girlfriend. The "hot coffee" nickname came from her opening line, in which she asked if he'd like to come in for coffee. Undoubtedly The sexual mini-game had a enormous impact on Rockstar North. On the one hand, on 20 July 2005, North America's organisation that establishes content ratings for video games, the ESRB , changed the rating of the game from Mature (M) to Adults Only (AO), the most high-profile game ever to receive that rating. On the other hand, the company was subjected to so many class action lawsuits. For example, Florence Cohen, an 85-year-old grandmother who purchased the game for her 14-year-old grandson (according to the old rating of M, the game is typically considered inappropriate for this age). Cohen's lawsuit claimed that Rockstar are guilty of deception, false advertising, fraud and abuse. The accusation of deception is based on the change from M-rated to AO, meaning according to the lawsuit that the original rating was a deceptive practic. Initially, Rockstar released a statement that strongly suggested the hot coffee content was entirely created by “hackers”. a few employees from Rockstar North also said publicly that the mini games created by a third-party. However, it turned out to have been a fraud all along after government’s investigation. On August 10, 2005, in order to return its “M”rating Rockstar North released another official " Cold Coffee mod”patch . The patch not only fixed many performance issues and bugs but also disabled the controversial "Hot Coffee" scenes, The company also lost $28.8 million in its fiscal 3rd quarter of 2005 partly because of the re-rating, ,In December 2007, Rockstar North approved class action settlement with an exchange or the refund for original game