14 DAY TRIAL // When the "Hot Coffee" class action lawsuit was settled somewhere in January 2008, the judges declared that any consumer that had bought Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and had issues with the possible unlocking of non-advertised content was entitled to a 35 dollar rebate from Take Two Interactive.
The lawyers that brought forth the class action lawsuit against the videogaming company have declared themselves "shocked" that only 2,676 came forward to collect the money they were entitled to. The adult content mod for the game was considered by judges to be the fault of the developers and publishers, as they were the ones that had left it in the game, even if in a locked state.
Seth R. Lesser, lead lawyer for the plaintiffs, was quoted as saying "Am I disappointed? Sure. We can't guess as to why now, several years later, people care or don't care. The merits of the case were clear".
The class action suit demanded some 1.3 million dollars from Take Two in damages and the company also donated more than 800,000 dollars to the Entertainment Software Rating Board. The deal that mentions the 35 dollar pay out was made to ensure the fact that all the players of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas that had felt offended received some fort of compensation.
The fact that so few people actually turned up to collect it might signal one of two things. Either enough time has passed since the "Hot Coffee" controversy so that few people still care enough to collect the money or the entire lawsuit was nothing but an extreme reaction on the part of a minority of game players, who were pushed hard by un-scrupulous lawyers to demand compensation. Personally I am inclined to support the un-scrupulous lawyers variant of the story.
The legal settlement in this case is due for review to make sure that the deal is fair and the parts have nothing to object.