Owners of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas who applied to receive compensation for the Hot Coffee controversy are beginning to get their cheques in the mail. Gamers are informing Kotaku that they have been sent a cheque from Take-Two, for the princely sum of five U.S. dollars.The money comes with a letter informing the recipient of Take-Two's commitment to "voluntarily fulfill all properly-submitted claims," even though the court "decided not to certify a settlement class." How nice.
'Hot Coffee' was the term branded to a particular scenario in the 2004
GTA game, that could be found by either modifying the PC version or entering
cheat codes into the PS2 version. It allowed the player to participate in uncensored, highly explicit sex scenes.
Take-Two argued that the code was not meant for public use, but in 2007
agreed to voluntarily pay compensation to end a hefty class action lawsuit. The results are only just beginning to show now, with game owners receiving between $5 USD and $35 USD.
The
GTA Class Action Settlement website notes that "All those who filed claims for benefits prior to the May 16, 2008, deadline will receive those benefits prior to April 15, 2010."