D-Dub Software, a video game studio specializing in adult-themed games that involve a lot of *ahem* explicit sex and nudity (i.e. BoneTown, a PC game which makes GTA's Hot Coffee mod look not-so-Hot-after-all), is waging war against the ESRB and the three major console manufacturers. Since D-Dub can't market their game out in the open, they're now on a mission to take the first step in what they hope to be an eventual "adult video game industry" of their own making.

CVG was able to sit down and have a little chit-chat with the top honcho of the formerly indie dev company Lionhouse, Peter Molyneux. He talked about the pressure they faced in coming out with Fable 2 for the 360.

To kick things off, Molyneux said that Fable's success with the Xbox definitely pressured them to take the gameplay to a whole new level with the sequel on 360. He says that it's really not enough to just give the players a whole new story, weapons, levels, and whatnot, but rather give them a new perspective through which they view the whole Fable universe.

They will be putting up new content on Xbox Live for Fable 2, one of which is the spectator mode, which actually sounds boring, but Molyneux says that there are different ways of looking at it. (Like, different ways of being a spectator in spectator mode or....?) But basically, yeah, they are looking into adding XBL contents for Fable 2 and they're making sure that they will live up to the 'live' in Xbox Live.

Oh, and did you guys know that the guys at Lionhead almost had a Hot Coffee moment with The Movies, their latest PC sim game? Basically, what happened was that one of the Activision testers slipped up and managed to include in the game a movie clip showing a girl's purple knickers. Naturally, they all panicked 'coz this was all in the middle of the whole Hot Coffee fiasco, so Activision said, "...we can't release this, there's going to be kids doing this on the internet, the game will get banned and the rating's going to be wrong."

Anyhoo, their hot shot lawyers had to go down to the studios to see and compare various screenshots to determine which ones looked like a vagina or which ones didn't. Bwahaha. It's all hilarious actually. And Peter Molyneux talks about this and more in the two-part interview, so if you wanna check it out, simply click on the read link below and you're all set. *grins*

More than a year after the events of the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' Hot Coffee scandal, game developers are still reeling from the effects the scandal's had on games in general. According to an MTV article, one of the long-term effects that have come about as a result has been the killing of creativity.

In addition to fears of getting sued, game developers have also had to endure protests and public demonstrations, as well as a tightening of censorship worldwide. The most prominent example of anti-game sentiment probably lies in the will of Jack Thompson, who has not only sued companies and tried to coerce its shareholders, but also appeared on variety of shows to pursue his agenda.

On the protest side, the Peaceaholics recently protested in front of Take-Two's New York office in preparation for the release of Bully, which some seem to think will be a schoolyard GTA. Lastly, censorship has been somewhat more pronounced, and developers have now begun to go the extra mile in filtering their games to pass scrutiny. As Denis Dyack, head of Silicon Knights, mentions, "We've seen signs that creativity in our industry is being chilled as a result of last year's political and media attention."

Like what our Gramps used to say, "When you're way up, there's nowhere to go but down; and those below have a knack for aiming at those who are on top." Such is the case with Rockstar. After achieving unprecedented success with its Grand Theft Auto franchise, it has been receiving blows from all directions in the form of lawsuits. It's sometimes hard to imagine how they still find time to develop games with all these distractions.

Well, Rockstar may have just gotten a huge break as a US district judge ruled on their favor regarding the complaint filed by a Los Angeles strip club. The complaint says that Rockstar Games breached copyright by designing a similar-looking virtual strip club for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

April of last year, The Play Pen club owner E.S.S. Entertainment filed a lawsuit against GTA creator Rockstar. The suit accused the said game developers of trademark infringement; a strip club in the game carried the name The Pig Pen and allegedly has a similar logo, awning, and 'Totally nude' advertising slogan.

While Rockstar admitted that their artist produced most of the game scenes inspired with photographs of actual spots on Los Angeles, including the Play Pen, they argued that they "changed the names, building designs and overall look and feel of the locations... To make them fit the virtual, cartoon-style world of San Andreas and the series' irreverent tone." To further cement their defense, Rockstar likened their situation with that of MCA Records who also got the "not guilty" verdict after being accused of the same violation with the song Barbie Girl. They got cleared with the judge saying trademark rights "do not entitle the owner to quash an unauthorised use of the mark by another who is communicating ideas or expressing points of view."

After reviewing all the evidences, Judge Margaret Morrow sided with Rockstar ruling that their "use of the Play Pen trade dress and trademark bears some artistic relevance to the game, and does not explicitly mislead consumers as to the source or content of the game."

That could finally settle the issues surrounding GTA: San Andreas, especially that it came after the ruling by FTC over the Hot Coffee scandal. Well Rockstar may have just weathered a storm but things aren't likely to stay this good for long with the controversy magnet company set to release another game - the alleged violent, school-based Bully,  before the end of the year. Let the stone hurling begin.

The Federal Trade Commission decided against imposing fines or taking other punitive actions against Take Two Interactive and Rockstar games after an exhaustive investigation into the "hot coffee" mod led to a settlement agreement between the FTC and Take Two instead of further charges.

The new agreement requires the two companies to "establish, implement and maintain a comprehensive system reasonably designed to ensure that all content in an electronic game is considered and reviewed in preparing submissions to a rating authority."

The agreement also states that Rockstar and Take Two must clearly disclose all pertinent ratings information about a game on the outside of the game's packaging. In the event that Rockstar or Take Two fails to meet the conditions they agreed to in the settlement with the FTC, they will be fined $11,000 per incident.

Maybe this situation has something to do with Rockstar Games' decision to release a ping- pong (or table tennis) game instead of yet another mega-popular violent shoot 'em up! All jokes aside, both sides seem to want to claim victory in the case and both sides seem ready to move on with their lives.

The ruling was followed by a 30 day period where politicians and the public alike voiced their disapproval about the agreement. Now that the debate is over and the settlement has been ratified, it is unlikely that Rockstar or Take Two will ever face any further prosecution over the hot coffee issue.

Take-Two announced last year that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was investigating the company's handling of the "Hot Coffee" incident. If you guys remember, Take-Two was accused of not disclosing the sexually explicit content that was found in the Hot Coffee mod. Gamers were able to access the scenes in the PC version through a patch available on the Internet, and a method was discovered to unlock the scenes in the Xbox and PlayStation 2 versions of the game as well.

Today, the Grand Theft Auto publisher revealed that a final resolution has been reached with the FTC. They also disclosed that "all outstanding matters pending before the FTC have been settled and no penalties or fines have been assessed".

Here's a brief statement from Take-Two, courtesy of 1UP:

We are extremely pleased that the FTC has concluded its very thorough investigation, and that the matter has been resolved. We recognize the importance of maintaining public confidence in the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) rating system and helping the ESRB educate parents and consumers about the rating system. We look forward to putting this behind us and focusing on what we do best - creating video games.

Be that as it may, the resolution comes with the stipulation of a Consent Order. It states that Take-Two will "not misrepresent a video game's ratings or content descriptors" and "implement a system to ensure that all game content is reviewed in connection with submissions to ratings authorities." Essentially, the FTC is telling Take-Two to shape up and to not screw up again, else the Commission will bust down their doors and go GTA on their poor behinds.

Aaaaaaaand since we posted a Jack Thompson article earlier today, check out one of our past articles on how Jack took on Take-Two.