Take-Two Off the FTC Hook

[fitbabits]

Team Xbox (http://www.teamxbox.com) is reporting that all FTC-related inquiries into Take-Two have been concluded - with no fines or other punishments being assessed.

You can read the full article here (http://tinyurl.com/nsklp).

Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. announced today that following the 30-day period for public comment, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has unanimously approved the Consent Order and Agreement with Take-Two and its wholly-owned publishing label Rockstar Games. All outstanding matters pending before the FTC have been settled and no penalties or fines have been assessed. Among other things, the Consent Order provides that the Company shall not misrepresent a video game's ratings or content descriptors and that the Company shall implement a system to ensure that all game content is reviewed in connection with submissions to ratings authorities.

A relatively lucky escape for Take-Two, methinks, and hopefully a lesson learned.

[Varsity]

hopefully a lesson learned.
Fill me in on this one: I always thought they were just legally responsible bystanders.

[fitbabits]

Fill me in on this one: I always thought they were just legally responsible bystanders.
Fill you in on what, exactly? The charge was that Take-Two (Rockstar, in particular) mis-represented GTA: San Andreas when they submitted it for ESRB certification. Rockstar knew the 'Hot Coffee' content was in the game (albeit uncompiled), yet they didn't mention it to the ESRB.

[Varsity]

Right, so Take Two don't have any lessons to learn, except perhaps to dump Rockstar.

[fitbabits]

Right, so Take Two don't have any lessons to learn, except perhaps to dump Rockstar.
Well, perhaps not dump them, but certainly keep them on a tighter leash so that a similar incident doesn't happen again. Rockstar keep Take-Two in the red, from what I understand, so dumping them is not really an option.

If, however, T2 did decide to dump them, I know who would buy them - in a heartbeat.

[Reanimated]

Finally some good news for Take Two.

[Morangie]

If, however, T2 did decide to dump them, I know who would buy them - in a heartbeat.

Nintendo? :D

[01010]

So does this mean the storm in a teacup is over now?

[fitbabits]

Nintendo? :D
Absolutely! The next Mario game will be called Grand Theft Mario Kart. The purpose of the game will be to steal your opponent's ride (Kart) and make off like the wind. Of course, you have to rendezvous with Princess Peach during the getaway for some 'Mushroom Tea' and to get your swerve on. While Luigi twirls his moustache and watches. Totally optional, you understand - you could just cruise round Mushroom Kingdom without doing anything illegal.

[fitbabits]

So does this mean the storm in a teacup is over now?
No, but it does mean that the storm in the coffee mug is over. :rolleyes:

[IagoTheHunted]

There's still no lesson to learn. The "lesson" in this case, wouldn't even boil down to anything against rockstar, since they didn't know their programmer had left in the uncompiled code.
The people who SHOULD have learned a lesson was the ESRB, the lesson being that unintended content can sneak through unnoticed, and parents should be aware of the risks related to modifying the off-the-shelf game content. Instead people are just pointing fingers and nobody addressed the issue. Bogus if you ask me.

[CannibalKid]

The FCC won. They got stricter controls over monitoring "undesirable" content. That's what the FCC's been doing lately. Sure the investigation is over, and it didn't cost THQ any more large sums of money, all it took was shackling their creative freedoms.

[EGO]

I thought this was over some dodgy accounting that they were doing with their quarterly reports...?

Or is that with the SEC and still pending?

Rockstar / Take2... "studio gangsters". Humph... :rolleyes:

[ElectricMonk]

games have been released with unused assets and code paths for a long long time

it's completely rediculous that this entire case is here at all and neither take 2 or rockstar did anything wrong in the matter.

it dosen't matter if you're unlocking content on the disc or replacing it with your own external action is still required to add a 'nude' patch.

so all we're left with is a completely useless law that will require game devs to take extra time and effort in already expensive and barely profitable projects to scour their code. if somebody names an asset 'fuckedup.jpg' and it's hidden in a pak file does this mean they can be sued now if their game gets rated t?

it's beyond stupid and nobody should be condoning take 2 or rockstar