Game Rating Board Probing ‘Grand Theft’

The industry group that sets ratings for video games is probing whether hidden features within the blockbuster title “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” allows players to make their characters engage in simulated explicit sex acts.

The game by Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. subsidiary Rockstar Games has been among the best-selling in history, even though its plot is objectionable to many people: Its main character carjacks for fun and profits and picks up women along the way.

Some users say the game’s content becomes sexually explicit if players download and install a modification to the game -- one of many “mods” available on websites maintained by video game enthusiasts.

If the investigation by the Entertainment Software Rating Board were to lead to a rating change from M (Mature 17+) to AO (Adult Only), it could limit sales at major retail outlets.

Rockstar confirmed in an e-mailed statement the existence of the ESRB investigation and said it was complying fully.

“We also feel confident that the investigation will uphold the original rating of the game, as the work of the mod community is beyond the scope of either publishers or the ESRB,” Rockstar said in the statement.

However, the mod’s author -- Patrick Wildenborg, 36, of the Netherlands -- told the Associated Press on Friday that his code merely unlocked content that was already included in the code of each off-the-shelf game.

There have been instances in which ESRB has discovered undisclosed content in a video game and changed a rating, said an ESRB spokesman, who declined to further comment on the current investigation.

The move from the ESRB comes just days after California Assemblyman Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) criticized the game for its violent and sexually explicit content.