Shareholders to sue over GTA sex

Take Two, the publisher of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, is facing more legal action over the game.

Separately, two law firms have filed class-action lawsuits on behalf of shareholders who they say lost money due to the controversy about the game.

Take Two faced widespread criticism in late 2005 when hidden sex scenes were found in the game.

The discovery prompted the release of a cleaned-up version of the game and led some stores to stop selling it.


Cost cutting

The row blew up over the so-called Hot Coffee modification to the PC version of the game which unlocked the scenes.

The unearthing of the scenes caused the US Entertainment Software Rating Board to make the game an Adults Only title. As a result many big stores which refuse to stock games with this rating pulled GTA: San Andreas off the shelves.

San Andreas publisher Take Two and the game's creator Rockstar came in for strong criticism from US politicians who demanded an investigation into the inclusion of the scenes.

The furore also resulted in the city attorney for Los Angeles taking legal action against Take Two alleging that no mention was made of the pornographic scenes in order to win a lower rating.

Now New York law firms Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman and Stull, Stull and Brody are filing class action lawsuits for people who owned stock in Take Two between the day when the game was released and the announcement of the LA lawsuit.

Take Two stock fell sharply on the day the LA lawsuit was announced.

A spokesman for Take Two declined to comment on the filing of the lawsuits.

In a separate development, a boycott of the GTA series of games has been demanded by the Sex Workers Outreach Project USA. The industry body objects to the game's violent attitude towards prostitutes.

In a statement the group said: "We wholeheartedly encourage citizens to vote with their dollars by refusing to purchase products which encourage the denigration and destruction of prostitutes."