LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- The city attorney's office has sued the makers of "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" for allegedly hiding pornographic material inside the video game, officials said.

Rocky Delgadillo said his office sued Rockstar Games and its parent company, Take-Two Interactive, for making misleading statements in marketing the game and engaging in unfair competition.

A telephone call made after business hours to a Take-Two spokesman in New York was not returned.

The game, released in October 2004, features characters that commit crimes such as murder, drug dealing and pimping.

The game also had an embedded "mini game" in which characters could engage in explicit sexual acts.

The industry board that rates video games gave it a mature rating but would have given it an adults-only rating if it knew of the explicit content, Delgadillo said.

The game's rating was later changed and retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp. and Best Buy Co., pulled copies from their store shelves.

But the game was re-rated only after more than 12 million units had been sold, generating about $600 million in retail sales. The city attorney's office estimated that more than 200,000 units have been sold to date in California, generating more than $10 million in retail sales.

"Businesses have an obligation to truthfully disclose the content of their products -- whether in the food we eat or the entertainment we consume," Delgadillo said.

The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, was part of an ongoing investigation into the marketing of video games, authorities said.

The game also spurred several states to crack down on sales of mature-rated games to minors.

Delgadillo is seeking civil penalties from Rockstar Games Take-Two Interactive.

He also is requesting that Take-Two and Rockstar take action to ensure full disclosure to consumers about the content of their video games.

Lawsuit says 'Grand Theft Auto' contributed to teen's shooting spree

http://www.startribune.com/484/story/702382.html

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A lawsuit alleges that one of the "Grand Theft Auto'' video games contributed to the shooting deaths of three people on newsman Sam Donaldson's New Mexico ranch.

Codey Posey was 14 when he shot his father, stepmother and stepsister to death in July 2004.

Now, relatives of the victims have filed a $600-million lawsuit against several companies and Posey, who was sentenced to state custody until he's 21.

Posey's lawyers had said he had been abused for years and killed in self-defense.

But a wrongful death lawsuit claims Posey played "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City'' "obsessively'' for several months before the killings. The lawsuit says the game taught Posey how to kill without inhibition and that if he hadn't played, "he would not have killed.''

The plaintiffs include Take-Two Interactive Software, which says the suit is without merit.

What are violent video games? They're murder simulators. Plain and simple. 'Oh my God!' I hear you saying. 'Why would I allow my child to play a with a murder simulator?' Well guess what? I let my son placing racing games all the time. I bet you would too Mrs. Worry. After all, it's just cars, right? Now is my son going to go driving his car 130 MPH down the city streets? No, of course not. We've discussed it and he knows it's stupid, likely harmful to others, and wrong. Well you know what else? Anybody that's mentally stable to begin with already knows violence and murder are as wrong as you can get. So let me ask you Mrs. Worry, why do you think my child or yours is any more likely to go blow someone's head off because they've done it in a video game than they are to go recklessly driving down the road because they've done it in a video game? Case closed.