Law & Order pulled from UK shelves

Written by Joe Martin

June 20, 2007 | 14:20

Tags: #ban #banhammer #banned #controversy #double #law #order #recall

Companies: #game

Tsk, tsk. When will those game developers learn to stop giving us UK gamers a bad name, eh? Not only has Sony been in trouble with the Church of England recently and was forced to apologise for upsetting Christians, while Manhunt 2 gets banned in the UK, but now it appears that copies of Law & Order: Double or Nothing have been recalled from shelves across the United Kingdom too.

Apparently a scene in the game has been spotted which uses a capture from a real-life murder as part of some background art. The photo in question is stuck to a wall in the game and shows the infamous CCTV camera shot of James Bulger, the toddler who was murdered in 1993, being led out of the shopping mall by his killers.

The family of James Bulger are understandably upset and have said that;

"Using that terrible picture of James as part of a game is sick. It dehumanises the memory of my lovely son. To use him in a game is below contempt."

Global Software, who confusingly only own the rights to publish the game in Britain, has chosen to recall remaining stock from sale. Legacy Interactive, the game's developers, has apologised to the Bulger family and pledged to remove the offending photograph from future copies of the game.

Goes to show, it isn't just in-game gore and hidden / forgotten content which can cause bad press for a game; it's also true of background art and realism in games.

Have an opinion on the recall? Think that game developers should feel free to use this material in a realistic manner which isn't critical to games, or do you think that more sensitivity is called for? Let us know in the forums.
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