Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser has admitted he was “constantly” concerned that the studio might close following the infamous hot coffee controversy of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
For as long as Grand Theft Auto has been around, it has been involved in some major controversy. From Jack Thompson rallying against GTA 4 to Lindsay Lohan suing Rockstar over a character that resembled her in GTA 5, the series is never far from getting into some kind of trouble. Arguably, though, the biggest controversy is San Andreas' Hot Coffee mode.
For those who need a reminder, Hot Coffee was a minigame planned to be included in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas that basically let you play out a sex scene. It was removed from the final version of the game, but modders found the code for it and got it to work, leading to major legal issues and an adult-only rating for the game from the ESRB.
Dan Houser worries that the heated coffee dispute in San Andreas could shut down Rockstar
That concern also played into GTA 4's darker tone
To this day, the Hot Coffee minigame is the biggest controversy Rockstar has ever had and has had a huge impact on adult content in games. While Rockstar eventually recovered from the entire situation, the backlash and legal issues were so bad that co-founder Dan Houser worried that the studio might close at one point.
Houser recently participated in an interview on the Lex Friedman podcast, where he talked about his time at Rockstar and all the games he's worked on. During part of the interview, Houser opens up about the development of Grand Theft Auto 4, which is widely considered the darkest entry in the series.
During the interview, Houser opens up about being unsure if he was happy in his life while writing GTA 4. Houser noted that one of the reasons for his unhappiness was the “hot coffee drama” of the time, which was so bad that he constantly thought he would “shut us down”.
As a company, we had all that hot coffee drama, so constantly thought we'd stop in the middle of making that. Lots of drama in the company. – Dan Houser
Rockstar had relative stability during GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas, but during the development of GTA 4, Hot Coffee Mode (combined with things going on in his personal life) made life feel “very uncertain”. Which shows how dark that game was, which shows how much influence Coffee had in the end.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
- issued
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October 26, 2004
- ESRB
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M for Mature: Blood and gore, intense violence, strong language, strong sexual content, drug use
- Engine
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Renderware
