Game gets ‘X’ rating over hidden porn

A TOP-SELLING video game has been given an adult-only rating after explicit sex scenes were found hidden in it.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas had pornography built into versions made for PCs, Xbox and Playstation2 consoles.

The Entertainment Software Rating Board said the scenes were programmed “to be inaccessible to the player”.

While the explicit scenes were never meant to be accessed, players can nevertheless unlock them by use of a special programme know as a “patch” or in the case of the console versions, a CD designed to access hidden game features.

Such CDs aren’t affiliated with the producers of the software itself.

Yesterday’s action comes after a user-made modification to the game, dubbed Hot Coffee, allowed owners of the PC version of San Andreas to unlock a racy sex scene, which cannot be accessed in unaltered retail versions of the game. Manufacturers Take Two initially denied the footage was included in the game’s source code, but has since backed down from that stance. It has since been discovered that the scenes can be unlocked in the PlayStation 2 version of the game as well.

The video game industry changed its rating to adults-only after intense lobbying from politicians and parental watchdogs.

Grand Theft Auto makers Rockstar Games said it was now working on a new version of the game. New labels will be distributed to retailers still wanting to sell the current version.

The game, which has an over-18 rating in Ireland, triggered an outcry from campaigners including Senator Hillary Clinton, who branded it a “major threat” to moral health.

“Children are playing a game that encourages them to have sex with prostitutes and then murder them,” she said.

The Grand Theft Auto series has sold in excess of 35 million games worldwide. Rockstar Entertainment’s decision comes after heated pressure from politicians, parents groups and an investigation by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), the ratings board for the video game industry.

“We’re pulling the game off the shelf until the new version comes,” said Julius Chatmon, manager of a GameStop store in Alexandria, Vancouver. “We’re not allowed to sell it at all, not even to adults.”

Controversy over the game erupted earlier this month when players began downloading an internet “mod” that allowed them to see the sexual material on GTA’s PC version. “Mods” are popular programmes that allow players to alter characters and scenes.

ESRB president Patricia Vance said this mod was unlocking material already hidden on the game, and not created by a third party.

“We were never informed that there were these kinds of scenes on the game, even if they were never intended to be discovered by players,” she said.