AfterDawn: News

Update: Sony apologizes to Church of England

In an update to our previous aritcle here, Sony has sent an apology letter to the Dean of Manchester Cathedral, apologizing for any offence caused by their hit game Resistance: Fall of Man.

The letter states, "It was not our intention to cause offence by using a representation of Manchester Cathedral in chapter eight of the work. If we have done so, we sincerely apologize."



However, Sony does not accept "that there is any connection between contemporary issues in 21st century Manchester and the work of science fiction in which a fictitious 1950s Britain is under attack by aliens.

We believe a comprehensive viewing of the work will make its content and context clear."

The letter also included an offer for Sony officials to meet with Church officials. The Dean said the Cathedral will accept the offer and hope to continue discussions over Resistance being withdrawn or Sony making a donation towards the Church's initiative against gun violence.

More updates as they become available.

GI.biz

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 16 Jun 2007 13:02

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• 21 comments

• PeaInAPod

  Sony got it up the ass. They got no backbone what-so-ever.

  16.6.2007 13:06 #1

• lecsiy

  Another blow to sony! Jesus would hate to be their PR!

  16.6.2007 13:17 #2

• JCourt

  Its jus a game.. there many games about places just cuz this a church it makes a difference? Sony says sorry leave it at that that good enough..

  16.6.2007 14:43 #3

• kivandrew

  Originally posted by PeaInAPod:Sony got it up the ass. They got no backbone what-so-ever.Well you might think that's its great for a large cooperation to go around and do as they like and not care about any criticism given to what they have done. In the world of business you cant go around doing this because this will just lead to bad publicity. The church could advise everyone to not buy Sony products and that would be very bad for Sony. You might think that this is not enough to dent the sales; true but they could advise other churches and then it will be bad.

  16.6.2007 15:24 #4

• hughjars

  Maybe the C of E just asked a favour from 'the big guy upstairs' & he sent the Blu-ray disc rot plague!
  
  ;)

  16.6.2007 17:20 #5

• dblbogey7

  Originally posted by hughjars:Maybe the C of E just asked a favour from 'the big guy upstairs' & he sent the Blu-ray disc rot plague!If the guy upstairs was really that powerful he would have sent something more significant than rot on a few copies of The Prestige. He would have made HD DVD the outright winner in the format war!

  16.6.2007 17:34 #6

• hughjars

  Well they did apologise eventually.
  
  :)

  16.6.2007 17:42 #7

• h8breed

  the real reason the c of e ie doing this is listed in the news article above "The Dean said the Cathedral will accept the offer and hope to continue discussions over Resistance being withdrawn or Sony making a donation towards the Church's initiative against gun violence" all they are doing is sitting back and getting free publicity from this stunt. and it also looks like that they will be getting a bunch of free money from sony also. i think this kind of backwords fund raising should be looked at as corporate blackmail. and trust me when i say this i am no way a sony supporter, but they are getting the shaft on this one

  16.6.2007 17:45 #8

• hughjars

  The people getting the 'free publicity' in this are Sony.......and you can be damned - ;) - sure that was the intention all along.
  
  It's not the Churches' fault Sony used their property this way, they didn't have to.
  
  Frankly I think Sony deserve all the derision they're getting over this.
  No doubt some cretin in their marketing & design dept thought this would be a great funny idea & once again (they do seem to have a real talent for it these days) it has blown up in their faces and caused genuine and deep offence to an audience far wider than they were expecting.
  
  Way to pour cr@p over your name & rep guys.

  16.6.2007 18:10 #9

• PeaInAPod

  Well if the Church of England can blackmail Sony about including a FUTURISTIC depiction of the area that church is in and get money from Sony. Well then by golly I am going to sue Google for all their worth I didn't give them permission to have a picture of my house taken and used with Google Earth! I am outraged they did this!I want money! At least with the PS3 the game was set in the future and none of was based on reality, but the nerve of Google! They have a actual picture of my house! Now if they were to insert a replica of my house that is based on 100 years in the future and its getting attacked by aliens, why then thats just insensitive!
  
  @hughjars
  
  Who is this "to an audience far wider than they were expecting' as far as I know the only people complaining was the church and once they got money they shut up. Hence they just saw this as a easy way to get money.
  
  And this statement...
  Quote:Way to pour cr@p over your name & rep guys.Just shut the hell up, its a public discussion board. I can voice my opinion you can post yours. Theres no right or wrong and you don't have the right to say we "poured cr@p over our names and reps".
  

  
  
  "Some people have no damn sense." - Nephilim, March 27 2007 @ 18:08
  My favorite #:
  09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

  16.6.2007 18:42 #10

• h8breed

  what i ment by corporate blackmail was this " company a does something. some group see this thing and creates public outcry about said thing. company a says their sorry, while group says thats not enough we want support for our project that can fix this. company a say ok because they now get good pr from this as opposed to bad." and you can see this everywhere in the usa the rainbow collition, led by jesse jackson, louis faricon's muslim group, differant churches, schools, townships, all do this exact samething. and if i read correctly from previous new articles regarding this, sony secured permition to take pictures and use a likeness of the church before hand. and who in their right mind would link fighting aliens in the 50's to current crime problems in manchester? hughjars and jack thompson? ;-) last i checked aliens dont run around with glocks, sell drugs, and manage women of the oldest profession if you catch my drift! sorry about the spelling and the girth of this post its 4 am where im at now.

  16.6.2007 23:53 #11

• hughjars

  Originally posted by PeaInAPod :@hughjars
  
  Who is this "to an audience far wider than they were expecting' as far as I know the only people complaining was the church and once they got money they shut up. Hence they just saw this as a easy way to get money. - Well then that's where you're wrong & you obviously don't know what you're talking about.
  
  This story made several of the English papers including titles like the Telegraph, Times and Daily Mail.
  Middleclass 'middle England' (by their definition) was not at all happy.
  
  Originally posted by PeaInAPod: And this statement...
  Quote:Way to pour cr@p over your name & rep guys.Just shut the hell up, its a public discussion board. - Oh dear.
  
  Try rereading that in the context it was said.
  
  (You might have noticed this bit preceeding that "Way to pour cr@p over your name & rep guys" comment, it ought to have given you a clue and told you who I was referring to......
  
  No doubt some cretin in their marketing & design dept thought this would be a great funny idea & once again (they do seem to have a real talent for it these days) it has blown up in their faces and caused genuine and deep offence to an audience far wider than they were expecting.)
  
  Clearly the comment was about the Sony PR & design guys responsible i referred to just before and not you......unless you want to tell us all something, hmmmmm?
  
  Hydra anyone? :P
  
  Originally posted by PeaInAPod: I can voice my opinion you can post yours. Theres no right or wrong and you don't have the right to say we "poured cr@p over our names and reps". - ......er, why not try decaff next time and just chill out a little, huh?
  
  Before leaping up to be so outraged & offended you might just want to check your facts before pretending or mistakening imagining I was referring to you with that comment.
  
  ......and "just shut the hell up".
  Nice.
  Great advice on a public discussion board 'senior member'.
  LMAO.

  17.6.2007 04:49 #12

• PeaInAPod

  -edited, not worth my time or effort replying-

  17.6.2007 06:18 #13

• Dunker

  So, Sony got free publicity and is going to make a donation to support more gun control (for those who are not so politically astute, "gun violence" is a euphemism for stricter regulation of legal guns). Although I didn't need another reason to dislike Sony, I have now become a hardcore anti-Sony activist.

  17.6.2007 23:51 #14

• Wild9

  I wonder if any sequel will depict a mosque. Perhaps that's a very touchy subject for the media, even in what is assumed, a secular society.

  18.6.2007 06:57 #15

• oofRome

  Originally posted by PeaInAPod:-edited, not worth my time or effort replying-
  Haha.
  
  
  Anyhow, i think that a mountain has been made out of a molehill with this whole thing.

  18.6.2007 07:18 #16

• emugamer

  Quote:The church could advise everyone to not buy Sony products and that would be very bad for Sony.That would probably be a cult. They make electronics. But, they've been pretty convincing in the past - urging their flock to support the Nazi's and kill muslims, etc....
  
  Anyway, although spineless, any publicity is good publicity.

  18.6.2007 08:29 #17

• johnc1234

  I personally don't think Sony should have to apologize. Other places are entered in to games but they just choose not to make a big deal of it. However I can see why sony apologized, if they would of decided against apologizing, they could see a dent in their sales. A wise move made sony, although you shouldnt of been put into a position where you had to apologize.

  18.6.2007 10:28 #18

• borhan9

  At least they are going to the negotiation table first before all the siuing starts i hope they dont go to that.

  21.6.2007 16:49 #19

• enigma644

  I love how a church is suggesting that a resonable course of resolution is for Sony to offer them a huge bribe!
  
  "We find your game offensive and want it withdrawn!! .. unless.. you know.. you give us a huge wad of cash.. then we'll pretend like nothing happened"

  22.6.2007 01:09 #20

• Ofnir1

  Originally posted by enigma644:I love how a church is suggesting that a resonable course of resolution is for Sony to offer them a huge bribe!
  
  "We find your game offensive and want it withdrawn!! .. unless.. you know.. you give us a huge wad of cash.. then we'll pretend like nothing happened"LOL exactly! I like how the word 'donation' was used too hahaha
  
  How did I know there was going to be money involved? Hey, it's a church, what do you expect? Well, not that all churches are like, but it seems that an overwhelming majority are.

  22.6.2007 21:13 #21