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Sony decapitates goats to promote God Of War II
Author: Joe MartinPublished: 30th April 2007
Sony's launch party for God of War II featured topless models decapitating goats and feeding offal to the crowd
The launch party for God of War II reached controversial new lows recently when a decapitated goat was bought on as the party's centrepiece. Guests were then encouraged by topless women to reach in and grab some offal from the still warm corpse as a party snack.
Other attractions at the event included knife throwing and guests being allowed to pull live snakes from a pit, while a Kratos look-a-like handed out garlands to the crowd.
Obviously the event has produced all manner of bad press, with the International Fund for Animal Welfare denouncing the event as an "Outrageous way to sell a few computer games."
A spokesman for the charity went on to say that: "We are always opposed to any senseless killing of an animal and this sounds like a gruesome death. We condemn Sony's actions. It is stupid and completely unjustified."
The event was then covered, with gruesome close-ups, in the Official PlayStation 2 magazine. Complaints have prompted the company to recall over 80,000 copies of the magazine though subscribers will already be getting theirs in the mail.
Sony has admitted that some of the events at the party, which was held in Athens last month, may have been unsuitable.
It looks like things aren't going well for Sony lately, what with Ken Kutaragi, the so-called 'Father of PlayStation' retiring and Game refusing to stock Sony's biggest game for the PS3 to date.
So, is there such a thing as bad publicity? Make your mind up and let us know in the forums!
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I'm sorry but that's just ridiculous.
All they've done is pissed off Daily Mail readers. Good for them, but if Jack Thompson finds out then it'll bite them in the ass. I may pass it on to him, just to spite Sony's attitude to European customers.
N'ah.
This was awesome
Sony have definitely gone up in my eyes for pulling something so utterly crazy.
QFT.
There were boobies, and you give us a shot of a guy in an apron? :(
http://kotaku.com/gaming/meat-soup/goatgate-sonys-side-of-the-story-256325.php
thousands of people die every day and we're getting all uppity about the killing of one goat??
Its not even like it was a 'senselesss' killing either, folks were eating it.
If that's senseless then we'd better all stop eating burgers, chicken etc... :D
As has been said, there's no such thing as bad press...
I personally would not have seen any ads for this game, or looked at it if I saw an ad or even have heard about this except for this.
So while there will be a lot of noise for a little while, the game is being widely publicised.
QFT!
Seriously, I wish I was there tbh
All the stupid hippies need to stfu, besides, if you actually read the statement from Sony linked to in CardJoe's post you'll see that the story reported in the UK was just sensationalism (as most things are nowadays )
exactly. and i bet its the eu government that's paying the press to badmouth gaming.... afterall, they are the ones that want to ban games and therefore need to increase support for their crazy theories.
(I too looked at the picture and went :? )
As was stated in the story linked by Joe: This happened two months ago and what actually happened was hardly like the impression the story gave.
We all may have a certain distaste for Sony lately, but who're you going to believe, SCEE or the Daily Mail?
I'd take SCEE any day.
Honestly, this story seems to be nothing more than tabloid sensationalism, and bit-tech never struck me as being an online tabloid before, nor do I think it should be.
Is this really a fitting story for bit-tech to present, especially in such a one-sided, sensationalist manner?
Does bit-tech really want to come across as being in the same boat as the Daily Mail?
I hope not.. It'd be more than a little bit disappointing. :|
---------------------------
Okay. In the USA, video games tend to be on shakey ground already. I mean Hot Coffee put the country in an uproar, Wal-Mart and similar brands won't even carry M games. And now Sony goes and makes this blunder?
I mean beyond the fact that they needlessly slaughtered a goat. (I mean you couldn't pit roast a pig or something?) And the nudity and such. There's the much bigger issue:
Someone approved this idea. So the meeting must have been like this:
#1: Hey, we need to really really promote God of War II!
#2: Any ideas?
#3: Topless women could sell games!
#2: Good, I like that.
#1: But let's make it in the era of the game, so that it looks tasteful.
#2: That makes sense.
#4: What about adding a Goat Sacrifice, letting people touch the entrails, and then having the whole thing in Athens?
*long pause, cricket chirp*
#2: Johnson, you've just recieved a promotion.
My point in that satire is this: WHO THE [insert profanity of choice here] THOUGHT THAT THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA?!
If I was the Father of PlayStation, I'd be happy I retired before this fiasco.
(God Of War II is an excellent game, and I'm a fan of the PS1 and PS2, but between the price, poor marketing, and like of tier 1 games for the PS3 (Even Army of Two isn't exclusive anymore) I see less and less reason to have faith in Sony and their company as a whole.
Any fanboy, or educated soul who'd care to correct me. Go for it.
:(
Plus, boobies = great.
Lastly, Joe Martin is the most one-sided Bit-tech journalists I have ever heard when it comes to the PS3/Sony. Whatever kind of bad rep (whether it's stretched for all it's worth like this article for example) he can throw at Sony in order to make them out to be some horrible, money scrounging company, he will try. He has said things such as 'PS3 has never had PS1 BC until the newest update' along with saying that the 360 and Wii have better, more comprehensive BC than PS3 which again is totally biased and can be easily proven wrong.
I agree with Zurechial: Bit-tech should not be a online tabloid, spreading biased one-sided reports before everything is said and done. That is why I am a member of Bit-tech.net. They are and should always be THE place for truthful, two-sided information/reviews/articles/whatever, and it is with articles such as these that I am getting sick and tired and I am expecting something to be done.
Of course, Joe Martin posts the aftermath remarks (in the forums none-the-less) from Sony AFTER he posts the article. It is with these remarks that Sony shows that the article was written by a journalist that never even attended the freaking event. So wtf does he know about what happened? Secondly the publisher even said itself that the article should not be seen as 'fact' or be a representation of what actually occured at the event. Of course Joe posts a picture that anybody can take as being offensive instead of showing more pictures of the event to help sum it all up, like the super hot girls.
Does anyone else agree with me on this that articles like these should not hit Bit-tech until both sides of the story are put together?
Oh
My
Goodness
I'm glad to say that i never liked sony and apparently never will.
The vegetarian, animal rights activist side of me is slightly outraged... the rest of me is smiling inside that Sony is forced to do this sort of thing to get sales. Desperation much?
It was STILL a crazy thing to do. Awesome, and crazy. Lets think about this rationally though.
It was only a dead goat. A goat that was going to be slaughtered and eaten anyway. They didn't have the goat slaughtered just to do this show. Millions of goats are slaughtered every year. It's not that big of a deal.
Besides, there were boobs.
Maybe they shouldn't have used an actual dead goat. I think a prop would have been good enough.
Thank God! Somebody who finally is thinking rationally about this whole thing. I mean using a decapitated goat was a little 'out there' and a barbaric, but it's Greece; you see all sorts of slaughtered/gutted animals in the Meat Markets there anyways so it kinda makes sense being a completely different country with different customs and cultural norms.
It is with that said that I think Joe's title is, as usual, way over-biased and over-the-top for what the situation is. I mean the fact that he titled the article "Sony decapitates goats to promote God Of War II" speaks for itself. It's like he's saying Sony decapitated the goat, which is totally untrue considering they bought it pre-decapitated, and that they slaughtered/totured it, which again is not true according to Sony's remarks. He also is making a huge deal out of Ken's retirement being a huge "let down" or something which again is bias in itself since he's now an honorary chairman for Sony which will still allow him to be involved with any future development.
Now they'll have to fall back on the boobies.
Firstly, I think the major issue here is not that the goat was killed - which obviously happens everyday thousands of times so we can eat, but the fact that the event appeared to use the animals death in an inappropriate manner. This was then reported in a magazine that, AFAIK, doesn't have an age restriction on it. Some people obviously object to this.
It's nothing to do with the goat/pig thing. If they'd bought a dead pig on stage then I still would have covered it. Its not to do with what animal it is, it's to do with the animal being there to start with.
Well, to start with I agree I don't like Sony. I can't help that, its a matter of opinion based on how I see they've treated their market as a whole and especially european audiences. Sure, Microsoft screw us over a whole lot too (and you'll find me bitching about Vista as much as Sony) and Nintendo need to sort out their supply lines, but it isn't anywhere near as bad as Sony. Besides, nobody else had a dead goat for an event AFAIK.
As far as BC goes, I continue to think that the 360 and the Wii have better BC than the PS3 seems to have. It's a matter of opinion, which is why I do my best to keep it to the forums rather than frontline press. I know I link to other, relevant, stories of Sonys bad press. But if this were Nintendo, I can promise you I'd do the same thing. I also think its pretty obvious that the Wii has best BC, between VC and complete gamecube support. PS3 BC is something I've not experimented with massively admittedly, but I've only ever pointed out that people seemed to be happy about PS3 BC whereas I would always have expected it as standard.
I'm sorry to hear you think that, honestly. I don't think Bit has become a one-sided tabloid in the month I've worked there. This 'goatgate' as Kotaku have christened it is a massive, notable story in the games community. It had to be reported IMO. I included all details I had at the time and linked to Sonys statement afterwards. As always, I'll try and provide more coverage as new details emerge to ensure that the event is fully covered.
No, I wasn't there at the party but the fact is that Sonys statement only became available to me after the story had run. The story is not intended to imply that I, or any member of Bit, was present. We're merely reporting on a story in the community ATM, using multiple sources such as the Daily Mail, which is linked to.
In regards to the picture, I actually tried to find an image that I thouht would be most appropriate. The picture used is part of a scan of the PS2 mag coverage and I cropped it to show the butcher. I tried to cut out the pointless, pixelated (and this useless to readers) image of the goat as much as possible and I cut out the topless woman because I didn't think that image would do Bits reputation any good, nor would it be suitable for some younger readers.
As always, we at bit both welcome and appreciate your feedback and hope that you'll continue to read. If you've got anything more to say then I'd love to hear it, so PM or email me.
I can assure you that I try to be as balanced as possible in my reporting, giving opinion only where appropriate. The fact that my opinions differ from yours though is something we'll have to live with ;)
Best quote in this thread. SIG!
Obviously the Wii has the best BC. You can play all the gamecube games on it, plus VC on top of that which deals with a load of even older games.
Since I haven't posted any articles on sonys BC though, it's not really an issue - just an opinion which I have deliberately kept to the forums discussion instead of using it as an excuse to fight with Sony. I've said it before, I'm not against Sony for any real reason - I just disagree with some of their marketting choices lately and feel they treat europeans users badly. No vendetta.
Cmon, how stupid can you be.