Hot Coffee compensation detailed

Take-Two Interactive has set up a web site giving details for US gamers to claim compensation over the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas "Hot Coffee" incident.

The company, which reached a settlement in November last year, will refund customers on a sliding scale depending on how much evidence of purchase they can provide, with a basic payment of up to USD 5 if a person has no details or original game disc.

Anybody claiming must swear under penalty of perjury that they purchased a copy of the game before July 20, 2005, that they were "offended and upset" by the possibility of the modified content, that they wouldn't have purchased the game if they'd known beforehand about the possible modification, and that on finding out about the Hot Coffee content they would have returned the game for a refund if they thought it was possible.

A file claim form is available from the settlement web site, which also explains that while a detailed receipt could yield a cash payment of up to USD 35, a credit card statement or cheque up to USD 17.50, the provision of a disc or general purchase details up to USD 10 or a straight old-for-new disc swap - as well as the basic payment mentioned above - the payments may be lower than the stated maximum depending on the number of successful claimants.

As the class action was taken in the US, this offer is currently restricted to US citizens, and there is no indication that Take-Two is planning to extend the refund scheme to other territories.