Hot Coffee (minigame)

"Hot Coffee" is the unofficial name for a minigame in the 2004 action-adventure video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas by Rockstar Games. While it was not playable in the official game release, the modding community discovered hidden code that, when enabled, allows protagonist Carl "CJ" Johnson to have animated sexual intercourse with his in-game girlfriend.

Rockstar Games president Sam Houser wanted to include more role-playing elements in San Andreas while also pushing the Grand Theft Auto series' controversial reputation. The development team was forced to curtail the nudity and sexual content of Houser's original vision, however, to obtain a "Mature" rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). Rather than removing the content, the developers made it inaccessible to players. Modders discovered the code on the game's PlayStation 2 release, and when San Andreas was released for Windows, modder Patrick Wildenborg disabled the controls around the code. He released this modified code online under the name "Hot Coffee".

The discovery of the "Hot Coffee" minigame resulted in intense legal backlash for Rockstar Games and their parent company, Take-Two Interactive. While both companies remained mostly silent on the matter, Rockstar Games released a statement claiming that modders were responsible for the minigame. The ESRB re-rated the game "Adults Only" after an investigation, while the game was banned entirely in Australia until the explicit content was removed. Rockstar Games and Take-Two received a warning from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for failing to disclose the extent of graphic content present in the game, while a class action lawsuit alleged that the company had misled customers who believed the game's content fell along the lines of a "Mature" rating.

"Hot Coffee" had a major impact on the video game industry. Rockstar Games's refusal to publicly comment on the matter was poorly received by the industry and modding community, while the ESRB announced fines of up to US$1 million for game developers who failed to disclose the extent of their graphic content. "Hot Coffee" reappeared in future Rockstar Games releases: A similar mod for Red Dead Redemption 2 was posted on Nexus Mods in 2020 and subsequently taken down by Rockstar Games, while 2021's Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition, which includes a remaster of San Andreas, was briefly removed from sale after data miners discovered the code associated with "Hot Coffee".