A POPULAR video game was pulled from the shelves in America yesterday after it was rerated for adults only because of hidden sex scenes.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the fifth instalment of the gang warfare game, had its rating upgraded by the industry’s regulatory group after it was found that a patch was available online to unlock the sex scenes. Retail chains such as Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Target removed the game from sale in line with their policy not to sell pornographic content.

The Grand Theft Auto, or GTA, series has sold 40 million copies since 1998, but it has often been criticised for its content. Teenage boys, in particular, enjoy its lurid mix of car-jackings, cop-killings and picking-up of prostitutes.

The makers apologised when a previous version, Vice City, included a character shouting: “Kill all the Haitians!” In the latest version the protagonist seeks to avenge his mother’s murder in the gang-ridden streets of his home town. A patch written by Patrick Wildenborg, a Dutch programmer, removed the game’s censor flag to reveal the pornographic scenes.

The game always allowed the hero, CJ, to date women. If the player was successful, CJ would be invited to a girlfriend’s house for coffee, but the camera stayed outside. After the game has been tweaked by Mr Wildenborg’s “Hot Coffee” download, the camera follows CJ into the girlfriend’s room and allows him to have sex with her at the player’s command.

Rockstar Games, which makes GTA, originally said that the sex scenes were the work of “modders” who write software add-ons, or modifications, known as “mods”. It now admits that the sex scenes were in its original software, but inaccessible. Such hidden scenes are sometimes called Easter eggs.

Jim Ankner, a spokesman for Take-Two, Rockstar’s parent company, said: “The editing and finalisation of any game is a complicated task and it’s not uncommon for unused and unfinished content to remain on the disc.”

The discovery of the extra scenes provoked an outcry from pressure groups and some politicians, including Senator Hillary Clinton. She said in a letter to the Federal Trade Commission: “We should all be deeply disturbed that a game which now permits the simulation of lewd sexual acts in an interactive format with highly realistic graphics has fallen into the hands of young people across the country.”

The Entertainment Software Rating Board has upgraded the rating from “M”, for mature, to “AO”, for adults only, making it an offence to sell it to anyone under 18. It is the first time that the board has changed a rating after a game’s release.

The National Institute on Media and the Family, a pressure group, called yesterday for the creation of a video game rating system that is independent of the industry. David Walsh, the institute’s president and founder, said: “It is clear that an independent rating system is the only way parents will get the accurate information they need to make wise media choices for their children.”

Rockstar plans to release another M-rated version of the game with the hidden content removed. The game already has an over-18 rating in Britain.

GOOD TRACK RECORD AT THE TILLS

The main character, Carl Johnson (CJ), has a mission to “save his family and take control of the streets”

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