Not content with upsetting animal rights campaigners with the God of War II dead goat fiasco, Sony have managed to upset the Church of England by featuring Manchester Cathedral in Resistance: Fall of Man allegedly without permission. The Church has demanded an apology and for Resistance to be taken off shelves, otherwise legal action will be considered.
What they’re most annoyed about though is that a shootout takes place in said place of worship, although they seem to have ignored the fact that the game has a sci-fi overtone and is set in an alternate reality 1950s. The Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Revd Nigel McCulloch, has called Sony “highly irresponsible”.
“For a global manufacturer to re-create one of our great cathedrals with photo-realistic quality and then encourage people to have guns battles in the building is beyond belief and highly irresponsible. It is well known that Manchester has a gun crime problem,” he continued.
David Wilson, a Sony spokesman, responded by telling The Times: “It is game-created footage, it is not video or photography. It is entertainment, like Doctor Who or any other science fiction. It is not based on reality at all. Throughout the whole process we have sought permission where necessary.”
Sony also managed to anger BT (British Telecom) a few years ago with the release of The Getaway. BT gave permission for Sony to use their logo, but one mission involved stealing a BT van, posing as an engineer and then carry out a crime of some sort. Copies were quickly withdrawn and the logos changed.
A tenner says Resistance will be back in the chart top 40 next week, with the bulk of copies sold in Manchester. All publicity is good publicity, love.