Rockstar and the ESRB have an awesome history, don't they? Since the original GTA they've been locked in a battle, with Rockstar trying to push every limit they can and the ESRB trying to keep them in line. If you thought the battle wouldn't extend to The Ballad of Gay Tony than you, my friend, are mistaken.

After receiving our copy of Grand Theft Auto: Episode from Liberty City, we noticed something... strange. On the back of the box, where the ESRB logo was supposed to be, there was a sticker covering the Mature lable, listing all of the wonderful things we can expect from Grand Theft Auto. "Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, and Use of Drugs and Alcohol." Something was... off, though. It was a sticker, and it covered up the old ESRB logo with a new one.

Apparently, logo under the box was missing "gore," and Rockstar needed to go back and cover up every mistake with a new one. We checked with some retails stores and are able to confirm that this is actually a wide-spread thing, and not limited to review copies. Printing mistake? Last minute addition to Gay Tony? ESRB error? Who knows? We've shot an email over to Rockstar to find out what happened, and why they needed to go back and add this after the game went to print.