Stores pulling 'Grand Theft'

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SAN FRANCISCO -- Retailers began pulling all copies of "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" from their shelves yesterday and calls for cracking down on raunchy video games picked up after the video game industry decided to give the game an adults-only rating because of explicit sexual content.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp. and Best Buy Co. had said Wednesday they would pull all copies from their store shelves nationwide. Circuit City Stores Inc., the nation's No. 2 consumer electronics chain, joined the list yesterday.

Rockstar Games, the producer of "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," said it has stopped making the current version of the game, which includes graphic sex scenes that can be unlocked with an Internet download. The game was released in October with an "M" rating, for players 17 and older.

"I love violent video games, but this is crossing the line," Wal-Mart spokeswoman Karen Burk told the Dallas Morning News. "It's kind of sick, actually. The programmers know that kids play this game, and kids can get these cheat codes easily. It's like putting pornography in a child's hands."

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York Democrat, applauded the change but said she was disturbed the sexual content appeared on store shelves in the first place. She asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate and called on the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) to do more to police game content.

"Apparently the sexual material was embedded in the game. The company admitted that," Mrs. Clinton said. "The fact remains that the company gamed the ratings system."

"Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" was last year's top console game, selling more than 5.1 million copies in the U.S., according to NPD Group.

Xbox and PC versions were released last month.

Rockstar's parent company, New York-based Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that the sex scenes were built into the retail version of the game. Company officials previously suggested that a modification created by outsiders added the scenes.

The game accounted for more than 42 percent of Take-Two's revenue in the six months through April 30,

Rockstar said it would provide new labels to any retailer willing to keep selling the games and offer a downloadable patch to fix the sexual content in PC versions. The company also is working on a new, more secure version, to be rated "M," for mature.

A computer program known as Hot Coffee allows users to unlock the sex scenes. Such modifications -- or "mods" -- are wildly popular among the hardcore gaming community, and have been shown to extend the retail longevity of games. "Half-Life," for example, is still sold years after its release because of a Counter-Strike mod that allows for detailed counterterrorist shoot'em-up action.

Take-Two President Paul Eibeler said "the decision to re-rate a game based on an unauthorized third party modification presents a new challenge for parents, the interactive entertainment industry and anyone who distributes or consumes digital content."

Take-Two said net sales could drop by more than $50 million this quarter, and lowered its financial expectations for the year to set aside funds for returns of the games.