Take Two Settles Hot Coffee Suit

02 Sep 2009 at 12:01:59 by Andy Alderson

Take Two Interactive has revealed it has agreed a settlement in the Hot Coffee class action suit.

A press release confirms that the suit has been settled, although it did not come cheap for the publisher.

“Under the proposed settlement, the class action will be dismissed in exchange for an aggregate payment of $20,115,000 into a settlement fund for the benefit of class members, of which $15,200,000 will be paid by the Company's insurance carriers, and $4,915,000 will be paid by the Company,” said the statement. 

“The Company also agreed to supplement the substantial changes that it has already implemented in its corporate governance policies and practices.”

"We are pleased to have reached this settlement, which represents another important step forward for the Company," said Strauss Zelnick, Chairman of Take-Two.

The Hot Coffee fiasco involved the inclusion of sexual content inGrand Theft Auto: San Andreas. A patch for the game was released backin 2005 unlocking the content, which subsequently spread to the consoleversions of the game.

What do you think about the settlement? Doyou think it’s a fair result for the publisher? Do you think thecontent was damaging? Let us know in the comments section below.

To further the company's financial sorrows, Take Two announced it had posted a $55.5m USD loss for the three month period ending 31 July. Revenue was also down severely, with the publisher reporting only $138.6m USD in revenue, $10m USD down on projected earnings and far short of the staggering $433.8m USD the company posted in the same period last year (largely due to  the release of GTA IV).

Take Two also announced today that four of its AAA titles have been pushed back to 2010.

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