That was the line as delivered by Electronic Arts in defense of its upcoming addition to the Medal of Honor franchise. Perhaps I reside in some Bizzaro-type universe as I cannot help but not see the problem here. Apparently, others reside here with me.
EA has taken a hard stance against the negative press it has been receiving from media outlets such as FOX NEWS, who had on Gold Star Moms’ Karen Meredith, who stated, “We’ve just come off of the worst month of casualties in the whole war,” she said. “And this game is going to be released in October. So families who are going to be burying their children are going to be seeing this and playing this game. I just don’t see that a video game based on a current war makes any sense at all. It’s disrespectful.”
Even politicians such as UK Defense Secretary Liam Fox, who, calling the game “Disgusting”, have joined in, asking both retailers and consumers to boycott the game – a request which seems to have fallen on deaf ears, while simultaneously pushing for an effective ban:
It’s shocking that someone would think it acceptable to recreate the acts of the Taliban.
I am disgusted and angry. It’s hard to believe any citizen of our country would wish to buy such a thoroughly un-British game.
I would urge retailers to show their support for our armed forces and ban this tasteless product.
It should be noted that UK soldiers do not appear in the game, though they have served in Iraq. Only U.S. forces appear in this title.
Of course, this is not the first time a video game has been targeted due to the way it portrays the present conflict. Developer Atomic Games’ Six Days in Fallujah, a title based around the real-world experiences of Marines serving in Iraq, was left without a publisher after Konami backed out due to receiving large amounts of negative press. Of course, the difference here being that Atomic Games’ President Peter Tamte made the mistake of saying they used the input of insurgents in development.
Not to long ago, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was also targeted as a result of an (optional) scene where the player, portraying an undercover agent operating within a terrorist cell in Russia, walks through an airport terminal as the terrorist fire upon travelers, employees, and officers. In this situation, even if the player chooses to play the scene, they do not have to fire their weapon at civilians to successfully complete the mission. They do, however, have to fire at FSB troops. The scene was flagged heavily with negative media. Despite this, it continues to sell heavily, even recently earning the title of the Best Selling Game Ever in the UK.
Responding to the negative press directed at Medal of Honor, Electronic Arts’ Amanda Taggart initially released a statement saying, “We give gamers the opportunity to play both sides. Most of us have been doing this since we were seven. If someone’s the cop, someone’s got to be the robber, someone’s got to be the pirate, somebody’s got to be the alien. In Medal Of Honor multiplayer, someone has to be the Taliban.” Strangely enough, this is nothing different than Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, in which, on multiplayer, persons can play as members of the
OpFor, who happen to be terrorist. However, I can recall nor find any controversy relating to this. I’m reminded of a statement by Christopher Mintz-Plasse of the film
Kick-Ass, “People are so angry at Chloe [Grace Moretz] for saying bad language but she murders a ton of people and no one seems to be offended by that.” It seems like
cherry picking to me.
EA Games’ President Frank Gibeau later told Develop.
“We respect the media’s views, but at the same time [these reports] don’t compromise our creative vision and what we want to do. The development teams care very much about what they’re building, and of course a bit of criticism from the media causes some to get demoralized, but at the end of the day we’re proud of what we’re doing. Bringing Medal of Honor back was no small feat.
At EA we passionately believe games are an art form, and I don’t know why films and books set in Afghanistan don’t get flack, yet [games] do,” he explained. “Whether it’s Red Badge Of Courage or The Hurt Locker, the media of its time can be a platform for the people who wish to tell their stories. Games are becoming that platform.
Games have been set in Afghanistan before. We anticipated this when we decided on the concept of the game—this is about being a special forces solider. What’s really important for us is that we partnered with the US military, and the Medal of Honor Society as well. We’ve gone out of our way to produce the best story for the game.”
Medal of Honor releases October 12th, 2010 for the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.
SAN MATEO, CA — November 19, 2008 – Capcom®, a leading worldwide developer and publisher of video games, is proud to announce the “Season of Street Fighter®” in celebration of the imminent release of Super Street Fighter® II Turbo HD Remix, coming to PlayStation®Network on November 25, 2008, and Xbox LIVE® Arcade for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft on November 26, 2008. The “Season of Street Fighter” will feature an assortment of Street Fighter-themed downloadable content (DLC) packs, music inspired by Street Fighter, and newly revamped digital destination points for both the Xbox LIVE online games and entertainment network and PlayStation®Network.
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Los Angeles – Nov. 20, 2008 – Film, television and video game composer Garry Schyman has created the original music score for the newest installment of the Destroy All Humans! video game series. Developed by Sandblast Games (THQ Inc.), Destroy All Humans!® Path of the Furon™ is set in the 1970′s and the game’s score is inspired by music styles from that era. Schyman’s musical influences for DAH Path of the Furon include classic 70’s film scores by Lalo Schifrin, Jerry Goldsmith and Roy Budd. The DAH Path of the Furon score was recorded with a live symphony orchestra as well as brass band, flute soloist, saxophone soloist and wah wah guitar performed by “A-list” musicians in Hollywood.
“The idea for DAH3 was to continue the approach set in DAH1 and DAH2 as though I was a film composer writing in that period,” said Composer Garry Schyman. “Of course wah wah guitar is slathered throughout because it was so ubiquitous and influential. Personally this is my favorite of the three DAH scores. I love this style of music!”
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London, UK – November 17, 2008 - Fonix Speech, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Fonix Corporation (OTC BB: FNIX), and Ubisoft announced today that the highly anticipated Tom Clancy’s EndWar, now available at leading video game retailers, features Fonix VoiceIn technology for its voice command interface. EndWar, initially available in US and UK English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Russian and Polish is available for both the Microsoft Xbox® and the Sony PlayStation®3 computer entertainment systems. A PC version in the same languages will launch in Q1 2009.
“Ubisoft chose Fonix speech software for its convenient user interface, low memory and processing power requirements. We needed to ensure that everything done in the game could be done by voice commands and Fonix VoiceIn offered us the technology to accomplish that,” commented Vincent Greco, worldwide technical coordinator at Ubisoft. “Fonix provided us with a unique set of tools for game development across multiple platforms.”
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CHICAGO – November 16, 2008 - Midway Games Inc. today announced that Mortal Kombat(r) vs. DC Universe has arrived on store shelves throughout North America and is available for purchase for the Xbox(r)360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, and the PLAYSTATION(r)3 computer entertainment system. The standard edition is available for a U.S. suggested retail price of $59.95, and the Kollector’s Edition is available for a U.S. suggested retail price of $69.95. Cultural icons collide for gamers and comic book fans alike as the eagerly anticipated face-off between heroes, anti-heroes, villains and vigilantes is unleashed in unmistakable Mortal Kombat style.
Some of the most popular characters from the DC Universe, like Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and The Joker, go toe-to-toe against Mortal Kombat favorites, including Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Liu Kang, Sonya and more. Featuring a brand new fighting system and unique intertwining storyline written by top comics writing team Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe combines spectacular multi-tiered fighting environments, such as Metropolis or the Batcave, with a compelling line-up of fighters to challenge and master.
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– Today Ubisoft announced that Far Cry® 2, its open world first person shooter on Xbox 360™, PLAYSTATION®3 and PC, has already reached one million units sell-through worldwide in less than 3 weeks of availability at retail.
“The holiday quarter is off to a solid start with the successful launch of Far Cry 2,” said Yves Guillemot, chief executive officer at Ubisoft. “The game is well on track to achieve our expectations for the year.”
John Koller, director of Hardware Marketing over at SCEA, is working to dispel myths in regards to the PSP-3000′s battery life. On the PlayStation.Blog, he confirmed that the battery life of the PSP-3000 will be equivalent to that of the current model PSP (PSP-2000).
Hi, everyone, there have been reports about the battery life of the new PSP system (PSP-3000) being shorter than the current model (PSP-2000), following an interview we recently did with Gamespot. I’d like to make a correction and clarify that the new PSP will have equivalent battery life to the current PSP, about 4 to 6 hours for games and about 4 to 5 hours for UMD videos. While the enhanced screen of the new PSP draws a little more power, our engineers in Japan worked to reduce the power consumption of the overall system including its components, so you won’t have to worry about losing any time when enjoying the more vibrant visuals displayed with the new PSP.
We hope this clears everything up, and we’re certainly excited about letting you all get your hands on the new PSP and checking out the enhanced screen when it hits retail next month.
While Japan was made aware of the release date of the PS3 headset, readers stateside had to wait in the dark to find out the price and release date of their region’s unit. Sony made it known today that as it is in Japan, the Headset will be released as a bundle with SOCOM: Confrontation in addition to retailing individually. As for a specific date, expect to see it sometime “This Fall”. Granted the October release date of SOCOM, we expect the Headset to arrive in stores somewhere around then.
Press Release — Tokyo, September 2, 2008 – Sony Computer Entertainment Japan (SCEJ), a division of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. responsible for business operations in Japan, today announced that it would release Bluetooth® installed Wireless Headset for PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3®) on October 30th, 2008, in Japan at a recommended retail price of 5,000 yen (including tax). With this new Wireless Headset, users will be able to enjoy the most immersive on-line communication on new software titles supporting on-line chat feature, such as SOCOM: CONFRONTATION*1 available on October 30th, Resistance™ 2 available on November 13th, and MotorStorm™: Pacific Rift available this autumn, all from Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios.
Offering simple operation and accessible voice chat on PS3, this sleek and compact Wireless Headset is an ear hook type headset, designed to fit either ear. Installed with Bluetooth, it pairs automatically with PS3 by simply using the bundled USB cable. The inner ear phone speaker of the new Headset along with the noise cancelling feature when in High Quality mode delivers stable, superior sound.
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According to IGN, the PSP will soon be seeing UMD’s as optional with full games being distributed via download. Sony announced recently that two of it’s forthcoming Japanese titles will be available both through retailers and via digital download. Not unlike what Sony did with Gran Turismo: Prologue, Yuusha no Kuse ni Namaikida or2 and Bleach Soul Carnival will be released both online and in retailers, though they will be priced online at a discounted rate of 2,800¥ as opposed to their retail counterparts which will be priced at 3,980¥. Yuusha is slated for a retail date of October 16, with Bleach shipping on October 23. Sony has not as of yet provided details on Memory Stick storage requirements or how it will be handling instruction manuals.
