Lawsuit Shows Few People Were Offended by GTA’s “Hot Coffee”

Ready for a bit of news that shouldn’t surprise many gamers out there? Well, you remember that class-action lawsuit over the hidden sex scenes in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas that ended with anyone who bought the game being entitled to either an edited disc or up to $35 in cash? Millions of people would have been able eligible for their piece of the settlement, but of those, only 2,676 were actually offended enough to file a claim. And the lawyers pushing the case are naturally dumb-founded:

“Am I disappointed? Sure,” said Seth R. Lesser, lead lawyer for the plaintiffs. “We can’t guess as to why now, several years later, people care or don’t care. The merits of the case were clear.”

In fact, it seems the only people to really come out on top of this dispute are the lawyers themselves, who stand to make around $1.3 million in legal fees. The reasons behind this are summed up pretty well by Theodore H. Frank, a lawyer who also happens to be a gamer:

“There are two possibilities,” Mr. Frank said of the settlement. “Possibility one is they have a meritorious lawsuit and they’re selling out the class for attorneys’ fees. The other possibility is that, and frankly I think this is the more likely possibility, they brought a meritless lawsuit that had no business being brought to court at all.”

So basically, after all the hullabaloo from politicians, lawyers, and various concerned people, it looks like the people who weren’t offended were the majority of people who actually played the game. Well that or people just didn’t know about the lawsuit, didn’t have proof of purchase anymore, or something like that. Point is: this turned out a be a huge waste of time for everyone that isn’t a lawyer.

Via New York Times