Paul Frew
Sony facing new lawsuit from Church of England
June 11th 2007 17:25
Sony is under new fire as the Church of England threatens legal action against Sony if Sony does not apologise and remove all copies of Resistance Fall of Man from stores. This PS3 hit has made waves as an excellent starter title on the PS3, with players battling an alien invasion in a fictional World War 2 remake. One scene in the game takes place inside Manchester Cathedral, United Kingdom - which has caused this controversy.
So whats the big deal after all...its just a game right? Well the Church claims that the mere fact of battling a violent war inside a photorealistic Cathedral is damn-right offensive! Moreover, Sony did not ask permission to use the location in the game. I have mixed feelings over this situation as game developers should have addressed the permission to use the Church in the game before implementing it as it is a religious place of worship. Perhaps developers thought that a game set in the 1950s with aliens running around the lot wouldn't cause much problems...although it has now.
An apology should be in place, and maybe even a fine (copyright perhaps?). But to remove all games from the shelves would be a bit harsh (perhaps release a re-edited version? - as we have seen with so many GTA titles). But one thought which pops into my mind is whether or not the same problem would have occured a few years back when gaming graphics were poorer (compared to our current standards). Surely there have been plenty of games which have been set in religious areas with no one complaining...maybe excellent graphics creating real life atmospheres might give the wrong people bad visions to do bad things...
This is a complicated situation and I would love to see how it pans out legally and morally...
New source from Gamespot.
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