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Two-Take pays $20 million to settle Hot Coffee class action

Publisher is "pleased" to reach settlement in long-running dispute

Take-Two and its insurance carriers have agreed to pay more than USD 20 million to settle a class action suit over the legendary Hot Coffee content found on Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas discs.

Under the proposed settle, the class action covering historical stock option issues and the Hot Coffee issue will be dismissed in exchange for a payment of USD 4,915,000 from Take-Two, and USD 15,200,000 from its insurance carriers. Take-Two has also agreed to extend changes already made in its corporate governance policies and practices.

Take-Two's portion of the settlement costs, the company says, has already been accrued over several quarters ending April 30 2009. Hot Coffee was a sex-based mini-game which was cut out of the final retail version of GTA: San Andreas but with code locked away which modders subsequently uncovered.

As a result, the game was re-rated by the American ESRB in July 2005 and boxes with the original M (Mature) rating replaced by new AO (Adults Only) rated ones.

"We are pleased to have reached this settlement, which represents another important step forward for the company," said Strauss Zelnick, chairman of Take-Two, in a brief statement.