Hot Coffee spills in Australia as San Andreas is banned

Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto San Andreas has been pulled from shelves in Australia after the increasingly censorious Office of Film and Literature Classification withdrew its rating in the wake of the Hot Coffee scandal.

The game had previously been rated as MA15+, the highest rating that the OFLC can award to videogames, but that certificate has now been revoked after the board considered the content of the Hot Coffee "pornographic" mini-game.

"Businesses that sell or hire computer games should remove existing stocks of this game from their shelves immediately," advised OFLC director Des Clark. "Parents are strongly advised to exercise caution in allowing children continued access to the game, particularly if they might have access to the Hot Coffee modification."

This isn't the first time that Rockstar has had a clash with the OFLC, however. Grand Theft Auto III was also banned outright in Australia, as was Manhunt, and Grand Theft Auto Vice City was heavily edited before it was granted a rating.

The OFLC joins the ESRB in North America in revoking its original rating of the product; the ESRB pulled its M-rating and slapped a rare AO (Adults Only) rating on San Andreas after Hot Coffee surfaced.

Here in the UK, however, the BBFC claims to be unfazed by the Hot Coffee content - which is, after all, little more than poorly animated dry humping, in a game which is already awash with rather more worrying violence and crime - and is sticking with its original 18 rating.