The (Federal) Case of Hot Coffee

Daniel Koffler | July 26, 2005

For those still in the dark, "Hot Coffee" is the name for hidden coding in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. If a player unlocks Hot Coffee, the game will respond with a bit of hardcore pixillated sex. A couple of weeks ago, Hillary Clinton urged the FTC to investigate Rockstar Games, the producers of GTA, for their alleged role in designing the explicit content.

Yesterday the House of Representatives got into the act. Gamespot reports that the House voted to support an FTC probe into the Hot Coffee "scandal" by a whopping margin of 355 to 21. (Go here to see the list of nay votes.) The House vote is not binding on the FTC, but would anyone be surprised, at this point, if Congress decided to hold hearings on video game content? On the upside, such a spectacle would make the steroid hearings seem almost reasonable.