Church officials accused the Japanese entertainment and electronics giant of using without permission the historic interior of Manchester Cathedral as the backdrop for the new PlayStation 3 war game “Resistance: Fall of Man”.
“It is well known that Manchester has a gun crime problem,” the Right Reverend Nigel McCulloch, the Bishop of Manchester, told BBC television on Saturday.
“For a global manufacturer to re-create one of our great cathedrals with photo-realistic quality and then encourage people to have gun battles in the building is beyond belief and highly irresponsible.
In a statement aired on BBC television, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe said it “is aware of the concerns expressed by the Bishop of Manchester and we naturally take the concerns very seriously.”
You have to wonder if someone inside Sony figured that competitive sales depend on affronting a significant portion of the target population.
Not that anything more than a declining minority of Brits seriously attend the C of E. But, it’s like keeping the Royals around for festive occasions. It’s part of their history. Keep it tidy and don’t crap in the pews.
I’ve been waiting for this article to be posted here, and finally it is.
I call this OVERREACTING.
Mostly caused by people that still have a hard time distinguishing “reality” from “games”.
That gunfight was to clear the church of alien creatures, if anything. Unless these guys identify themselves as those alien creature, I don’t see it as offending them, but defending their religion if anything.
For a global manufacturer to re-create one of our great cathedrals with photo-realistic quality and then encourage people to have gun battles in the building is beyond belief and highly irresponsible.
I’ll take his concern seriously the day there’s no longer chaplains in the military.
If I were one of the altar boys fondled by any of the priests I would find this game very gratifying.
The C of E is offended?
Sorry, I left my violin in my other pants.
And you left your violin case open.
Ohhh. Is that what you fiddle with?
Further, I wasn’t aware the “software giant” required permission to use the “historic” church setting…
…If I write a political thriller about a corrupt President (a fictional one, not the real one) , do I need permission to set it in The White House?
#6 – don’t confuse sales and marketing decisions with reality. Or, FTM, game design for fun and profit.
Of course the article has to bring in the “violent games are corrupting our children” slant. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sony instigated this story to get some publicity.