The Federal Trade Commission has settled the case with Rockstar over the Hot Coffee scandal, and the results could've been a lot worse.

The FTC and the two companies have reached a settlement agreement, which requires Take Two and Rockstar to "establish, implement, and maintain a comprehensive system reasonably designed to ensure that all content in an electronic game is considered and reviewed in preparing submissions to a rating authority."

The companies are also required to "clearly disclose" any content relative to the ESRB rating on all packaging and promotional or ad material, and they are restricted from misinterpreting games' ratings or content descriptors -- demands that are surely expected from all publishers.

So essentially they were told really emphatically what every game company already knows. They weren't hit with any fines (one could argue the $24 million in recall costs were punishment enough), but are now on notice that Rockstar and Take Two are "subject to civil penalties of up to $11,000 per violation if they violate the order."

Next Generation