Sony issues apology to Church of England

Tech News

By Stevie Smith Jul 9, 2007, 13:08 GMT

Following on from the recent furore caused when Manchester Cathedral was used as a killing ground in Resistance: Fall of Man (a sci-fi PlayStation 3 videogame), Sony Corporation has issued an official apology to the Church of England.Although Sony has published an "unreserved" apology in the Manchester Evening News daily newspaper regarding the complaints lodged against it by the Church, the Japanese electronics giant has also said it will not be removing the game from retail in order to amend the inclusion of Manchester Cathedral. This is unlikely to sit well with the Church, which has demanded an official apology, a sizeable financial contribution, and the complete removal of Resistance: Fall of Man from sale until the sequence held within Manchester Cathedral has been edited out of the game’s content. "It is clear to us that the connection between the congregation and the cathedral is a deeply personal and spiritual one… As a result, it is also clear that we have offended some of the congregation by using the cathedral in our science fiction game." offered David A. Reeves, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE). "It was never our intention to offend anyone in the making of this game, and we would like to apologise unreservedly to them for causing that offence, and to all parts of the community who we might also have offended," he added.The Very Reverend Roger Govender, the Dean of Manchester Cathedral, outlines in a BBC report that the Church "asked Sony to withdraw the game. They have refused to do this." He also said the Church asked Sony to make a substantial donation to nominated community groups and also sign up to the Sacred Digital Guidelines, both of which they have also refused to do."We fear that the next buildings to be cloned for virtual desecration could be a mosque, synagogue, temple or other churches," he warned.The Sacred Digital Guidelines are being drawn up by Manchester Cathedral in order to have computer and videogame creators better respect sacred buildings, seek proper permissions and not merely assume them to be open for cloning.Whether the Church of England holds true to its initial threat of legal action if Sony refused to pull Resistance: Fall of Man – which it plainly has – remains to be seen.

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deboJul 9th, 2007 - 19:23:43

...because the Church would never have anything to do with killing or murder throughout the ages.

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atheist and proud of itJul 12th, 2007 - 22:42:52

Stop letting organized religion bully you!! They're mudering bigots, every last one of them. They need to make a character dressed like the pope, who goes around with a machine gun, killing people.

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