Sony's response to Church in full News

"Resistance: Fall of Man is a fantasy science fiction game and is not based on reality. The game is set in an alternate and mythical version of Europe in the 1950s, in which the enemy are strange looking alien invaders seeking to destroy humanity."

Damn striaght - you can't blame an alien for not understanding what we deem as holy ground, and i think that in the interest of saving humanity, a shoot-out in a church is a small price to pay! :P

On the flip side, it is just a game... but i think sony is onto a winner with the quoted arguement :)

Clever ploy there. Wait for Sony to sell millions, then come and hold up your hand saying you're offended and want cash.

if it was in a film with the same plot no one would care

Sony: Churchlol

I'm glad Sony are taking this seriously. Only the other day I considered fighting off alien invasions down at my local worshipping hole.

The irony is that the church want the money to finance an 18-30 recruitment drive. Total own goal.

As a post on b3ta said, the Church didn't get my permission to use my planet as the base for their fairytale bullshit.

Church officially loses touch with reality and fiction. News at Ten.

@ Salaman

They don't want cash, they want an apology.

LOL @Wyrm...

I'll remember that one...

In all fairness, the cash they are asking for is going to anti-gun education so it's not exactly money-grabbing.

I think we're going to see a lot more of this sort of thing as the industry matures - the market is large enough now to be influential as a social voice so it'll get debated more in the public eye.

I think it's nice to see the church standing up for itself.

Wait - why only Resistance? Every game from HL to GoW to God of War (LOL) has used religious settings or story elements. I am a religious person, but So far as I know, no one has deliberately insulted any religion in any game.

So what's the point?

I don't think the problem is that the setting is a church/holy place, it's the fact that it is a real place, Manchester Cathedral. Presumably Insomnia asked for permission to use the cathedral in the first place and, if so, then they must have said it was OK. If Insomnia didn't then they deserve to be reprimanded for not going through the proper channels but I find it hard to believe that they ask first, in which case the Cathedral is to blame for not checking what it was being used for, surely?

Personally, I think it's an overreaction... I remember a section in Call of Duty on the PC which had you shooting Nazis (i.e people not aliens) from the inside ruins of a church and no-one complained about that... but then it was in France not the UK...

"As a post on b3ta said, the Church didn't get my permission to use my planet as the base for their fairytale bullshit." - Thank you, just brightened up my morning! Which is the only comment I'll make on this shambles.

Fricking religious nuttery.

Do the Church need to sue for more money? Maybe abusing choir boys is getting risky and paying for rent boys is less problematic, but damn they get expensive.

I've not played Resistance, but can some who has confirm whether there are any people involved in the shoot-out?
The news showed a clip and it was clearly army-types versus alien bug things; but they then described how "many innocents" are killed during the shoot-out - which they implied was what the church was most displeased with.

Interesting how they haven't picked on Hellgate: London yet.

Clever ploy there. Wait for Sony to sell millions, then come and hold up your hand saying you're offended and want cash.

They were interviewed yesturday and the BBC asked

"The game has already sold 1 million why are you filing this complaint now?"

"... erm... we... er... Only found out about the games existence on Friday"

I don't think they know why they're complaining, it's gone from shooting people (which are clearly Alien-esque things) to you did not have permission to use the Church.

It's based in an alternate reality 1950's era, bah!!

@Wyrm

That just made me cough up my morning coffee all over the keyboard :)

Fairytale bullshit... I think I need a tee with that on !!

Hallelujah!

I'm shocked at their responsible reaction.

Are you sure this is Sony?

Can the people of Manchester sue the church? After all they encouraged us to go round putting little bits of paper on our tongues and from there sprung the whole Madchester scene and the gun crime.

"Do the Church need to sue for more money?"

Up until a few years a go they were a major shareholder in Plessy and other firms that made their money from bombs and missiles.

why exactly does insomina need permission? It is not like they have actually used the church. Besides the church itslef in the game is a ruin.

If they had sneeaked into the chruch and filmed a shoot-out I could understand, but it is complete fantasy.

@X201:

Ah, but doesn't the bible say:
The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name.

Exodus 15:3 by the way...
So that justifies them doesn't it?

Can you claim copyright on a building? Nobody in London had a problem with them recreating the city centre for The Getaway's violent shenanigans.

Up until a few years a go they were a major shareholder in Plessy and other firms that made their money from bombs and missiles.

Holy hand grenades!

More like in-game advertising. They should cough up :-)

@Wite_Noiz - There's a 5-10 minute section in the single player /co-op campaign where you fight your way through the cathedral against Chimera-infested humans, etc., but the cathedral also features in the Manchester multiplayer map which allows you to shoot other human players inside and on the roof so I guess that is what the church are complaining about.

I'm sure all this adverse publically will do wonders for sales of the game though! LOL

hahaha, what a crock of crap.

The Church should be looking at their child abuse statistics rather than worrying about crap like this.

Why use a real church? It's only ever going to end badly.

"The Church should be looking at their child abuse statistics rather than worrying about crap like this."

Right on!

@AndyK - I was under the impression that you need permission to feature any real-life building in a game as I recall Bizarre Creations saying a few years back how complex and time-consuming it was for them to get the rights to use the locations they feature in the PGR games. I would therefore presume that Insomnia would also have had to obtain permission to use the few real-life landmarks featured in Resistance, which wouldn't have been a problem anyway as most of the game isn't factually accurate otherwise.

I don't think the church angle really makes a difference. The real question here is can you recreate and use the name and likeness of any privately owned building, say canary wharf, or in this case Manchester Cathedral, without the permission of the owner of said building.

I'd say probably not, especially if you namecheck the building too. As it's someone elses property and they are probably promoting and selling the likeness themselves for commercial purposes.

"The Church should be looking at their child abuse statistics rather than worrying about crap like this."

I thought letting children play Resistance is abuse! ;)

I'm just jealous for not having a PS3.

The church is as popular as a nail through the foot. It is responsible for many a massacre in the name of religion and the crusades were a church sanctioned war for heaven sake!

If I were the bishop I'd have shut up and started whistling inconspicuously pretending the whole thing didn't exist.

intepid.com/2005-04-27/12.25/

Poor Bish is still angry at Richard Dawkins making the Christians sound like the bunch of lunatics that most religious groups tend to be...

http://www.metro.co.uk/fame/interviews/a...

Sony must have been the nearest person when they lashed out.

Ok, this is my first post as I normally lurk. I'm a Christian, and I'm also a senior programmer in the games industry, so I'm not a n00b - but I feel I should have a word.

Firstly - I can almost guarantee that proper permission wasn't sought. What with the general level of suspicion towards the games industry by religious types, don't you think it'd be a bit odd that the Church would allow images to be used without inquiring what the game was about? The minute they found out it'd involve guns, they'd have put the kibosh on it before it got started. So either no permission was asked for, or else someone told fibs to get the permission - either way, the Church is in the right on this one - expect an apology before too long from the relevant parties.

Secondly - the Church are right to kick up a fuss. They aren't being all stuffy and religious. Manchester has a serious gun problem - no-one's gonna argue that - and the Cathedral has been working with groups at street level to help sort it out - to set a game that glorifies shooting (whether it's aimed at humans or aliens doesn't really matter) - in the very Cathedral that opposes gun toting of all kinds is just plain crappy. The Church isn't worried about "shooting in a place of worship" it's about the idea that somehow the church condones it's building being used in a shoot-up.

@attacanteblue
Good point.

/fanboi mode
All hail Lord Sony!1!1!1

It's the equivalent of setting a level in a school, regardless of your opinions of the people complaining, what makes you think it's going to be well received!

@attacanteblue:
I feel I should have a word
Free country :)

Just one thing about your post though which I actually said in the other thread
I can almost guarantee that proper permission wasn't sought

The fact highlighted by EG themselves in the original article seems to rest on the fact that the permissions which are needed are actually obtained...It doesn't specify if the church had to be informed...Maybe the city council was asked and they agreed...

@attacanteblue
"The Church isn't worried about "shooting in a place of worship" it's about the idea that somehow the church condones it's building being used in a shoot-up."

Considering how the church condemns people to die every single day, I don't think this is an argument they can validly use.

The Church is against vaccinations (because they kill babies for that doncha know), and against condoms (why bother, it doesn't stop the AIDs virus anyway). People die every single year because of wrong information spread by the "Church Science department".

Don't get me wrong, Sony marketing has made a few booboos in the past year, but something tells me the Church needs to seriously consider their own methods of operation, before critisising a game they most likely haven't even looked at.

"The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name.

Exodus 15:3 by the way... "

God is a jellyfish?

@Nth:
What?...
I don't get it....

It smells of cheap publicity for me.

PS3 sales are underwhelming to many.
Public interest/knowledge of PS3 is low.
Resistance is a focal point of Sony's campaign.

Suddenly, the church takes offence and they're on the front page of all t5he online news networks, even on the BBC evening news.

Hmm.

@zuljin

Please don't assume that everyone in the Church thinks the same way. The two examples you give are not Church of England (to which the Cathedral belongs) positions - and there are many Christian bodies who work tirelessly (often voluntarily) to help eradicate child poverty and early death throughout the world - accepting the best practices of science and medicine as a guide.

It doesn't fit in to Dawkins' tidy little "all-religion-is-bad" box, but it is true, nevertheless.

Pathetic insecure religious zealots

@Wite_Noiz - "I've not played Resistance, but can some who has confirm whether there are any people involved in the shoot-out?"

If memory serves, there are about 4 fellow soldiers who get it in the gun fight and a few bodies of previous fallen comrades lying around.

The rest are the nasty little scorpion-like creatures that suck your face off, followed by some bigger shoot-y aliens and a couple of the hellish dog-like beasties.

It's quite a good shoot-out actually...I might revisit. Thanks to the church for reminding me of it.

It would have been better had there been some choir boys to shotgun

@NthSimulachum
c'mon man, stop these childish attempts to provoke outrage on the church.

Secondly - the Church are right to kick up a fuss. They aren't being all stuffy and religious. Manchester has a serious gun problem - no-one's gonna argue that.

Then who's the ****tard that let Insomiac use Manchester at all in their game, if it's such a sensitive subject?

Why the church in particular when there's a whole damn City Insomiac has named Manchester in their game.