10 Banned PS2 Games Too Controversial For Their Time

Of course, no list about controversial or banned video games would be complete without mentioning the Grand Theft Auto series.

With each iteration in the franchise sparking new debates about video games and violence, Rockstar’s flagship series has had a rocky relationship with Australia’s OFLC for quite some time. Grand Theft Auto III was banned outright, Vice City required censoring to acquire certification, certain retailers refused to sell GTA V. The choice for this list, however, goes to San Andreas, which saw the game temporarily banned in the territory for the notorious Hot Coffee segment.

If you’re unaware of this story, Hot Coffee was a cut minigame found in the game’s files where protagonist CJ could be seen having sex with his chosen girlfriend. Despite only being accessible through mods and console hacks, many took issue with the removed content, resulting in the OFLC retracting the game’s certificate, effectively banning it.

Thankfully, though, there was a happy ending as new copies of the game were released with the code removed. There was even a Cold Coffee patch released that would crash the game of someone who tried to access the naughty content that was never intended to be seen in the first place.