Several days ago, Chinese news service Xinhua publicised official complaints by the government of the mid-Asian country Bangladesh, citing its dissatisfaction of the portrayal of their land in the soon-to-be-released third installment of the popular PlayStation 2 SOCOM franchise. Today, Sony explains it will comply with Bangladeshi demands, declaring of its tactical shooter, "we have decided to remove any reference to Bangladesh from the final version of SOCOM 3."
A Sony spokesperson defended the decision, saying, "In a recent prototype, it has come to our attention that one of the game's missions may have offended some communities due to its setting in Bangladesh. The SOCOM franchise has never depicted any government or country as a terrorist operation, and any depiction of independent terrorist groups is purely from a fictional standpoint. Within the storyline of SOCOM 3, there has never been any reference to Bangladesh supporting, or harboring terrorists and/or other criminal activities."
The country had threatened to sue publisher SCEA if they did not remove all references to Bangladesh from the Zipper Interactive-developed game. SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALs will be released this fall, but you'll only play in countries who didn't bother to complain about their inclusion in the game.
Article by Cyrus Baetz, GamingWorld X
Source: SCEA
Our Comments
Cyrus Baetz: Good ol' Sony's compliance is understandable, and they had no good reason to cause a media frenzy by dragging this out longer, as the top-selling series is already guaranteed success. Besides, while single-player will be good practice, most of us will be buying it for the always-awesome online play.
