Take Two’s “Hot Coffee” scandal garnered Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas the kind of attention few of us associate with the franchise.  For the first time, it seems, the mainstream media (and anti-video game violence “crusaders” like Jack Thompson) attacked the series for its sexual content.  Now, it appears Microsoft may have a similar issue on its hands, with the Vista edition of Halo 2 delayed for alleged nude content.

“Hot Coffee” burned both Take Two and developer Rockstar North in 2004, when a modification of San Andreas was used to, rather tamely, mimic sexual relations in a mini-game.  Few stumbled upon the mod, the mini-game required some serious imagination, and yet it was enough to “fire-up” the right-wing media and lawyers profiting from prime time TV interviews.

Although gamers are still speculating where this nude content might be in the Vista PC edition of Bungie and Microsoft’s Halo 2, the latter is admitting that the issue exists.  A Microsoft rep made this statement to the press:

“Halo 2 for Windows Vista did not release to retailers on May 22, as previously announced, and will ship from manufacturers on May 31.”

On the topic of nudity, an email from Microsoft stated,

“It has come to our attention that an unfortunate, obscure content error which includes partial nudity was included in our initial production of ‘Halo 2’ for Windows Vista.”

The representative goes on to apologize for the slip up, and promises a patch will soon be available from www.halo2.com to fix the issue. 

It seems PC shooter fans have something other than a mouse and keyboard to hold over the heads of us poor console owners (with our fully clothed Master Chief).