Modding

The 'Hot Coffee' mod (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas)
After the release of a mod for 'Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' for the PC in 2005, a formerly inaccessible minigame was discovered. The minigame caused a lot of controversy, as it included adult content which would mean that the game would have to be re-rated. Previously, the minigame was completely disabled, however, by the 9th of June 2005, people found ways to enable it using hacking tools. On the 20th of July  2005, the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) announced that it was changing the rating  from 'Mature' to 18+ . Rockstar stated that it would discontinue the current version of San Andreas, and produce a new version that would not include the the Hot Coffee mod, allowing it to be re-rated as 17+. There was a massive recall on all GTA: SA games that had been released, and this affected the retailers, and Rockstar alike. On the 21st of July, the day after the rating change, North American chain stores and retailers, (which accounted for every major retailer in the United States and approximately 85% of the game's market in the country) removed the PC and console versions of the game from their store shelves, either restickering the box with the new rating, or returning it to the Publishers and Developers (Take Two Intertive). There was less of a reaction in the EU however. In Europe, the game was already an 18+ before the discovery of the mod. Unlike the US, many European nations operate the same classification as they do to films - it is a criminal offence to sell adult-only games to people below the age of the rating. In December 2005 after the huge issue that this mod had stirred up, Senators Hillary Clinton, Joe Lieberman and Evan Bayh introduced the 'Family Entertainment Protection Act', which called for a 'federal mandate enforcement of the ESRB ratings system in order to protect children from inappropriate content'. This reaction proved how huge of a problem this mod had become - the government were even involved.