Sony has always been known for their bizarre, provocative PR stunts, but they've always stopped short of actual corpse desecration. Until now.
Sony recently held a launch party in the UK to promote the wicked awesome God of War II, and in reverence to the ancient Grecian cultures celebrated so vividly in the title, they filled the party with topless girls, pits full of snakes, and a decapitated goat, whose stomach had been filled with offal (not his own) that guests were invited to sup upon.
Of course, animal rights groups immediately came to the aid of the exsanguinated livestock, dubbing the event "outrageous", and asking if they provided a comparable decapitated soy alternative.
Sony, being Sony, continued blissfully down the path toward actually murdering children to promote the PSP, by printing pictures of the entire event in the Official PlayStation Magazine. They have since released an apology for exposing such a large, public audience to an accurate portrayal of an ancient Greek orgy, but you just know they had their fingers crossed behind their backs when they issued it.
[UPDATE: Kotaku has word that the event wasn't exactly as Bacchanalian as The Daily Mail made it out to be. Apparently the goat itself was just a decoration, which was kept away from guests at all times, and the "offal" was a traditional greek meat soup, served vaguely near the goat, but not actually from within it. The most intriguing part is that Sony claims the article itself was written by someone not in attendance at the event, and that he, himself, was a cyclops.
So, who are you going to believe? Crazy ol' Sony, or crazy ol' media cyclops?]
they could make a game about an Aztec warrior and perform a human sacrifice, and i bet people wouldn't go as crazy as long as it wasn't an animal. animal rights activists go over the top 99% of the time.
besides, it could've been worse... there could have been Ancient Greek-style sodomy.
A little gross? Maybe.
Warranting outrage and animal activist bullshit? Hell no.
Go for it Sony. KILL ALL THEM LIL' ANIMALS!
Oh and about the goat? What the hell? Thats disgusting...
Now does anyone have any more pics of the naked chicks?
WTF were they thinking? Maybe they could have included a white chick kicking the snot out of a black chick WHILE eating the goat as a little nod to the PSP, or maybe some squirrels that sounded mexican INSIDE the goat, or a rootkit installed in its intestines or something. Jesus, does it ever end?
so wait if it wasn't for a video game it would be art then....
people should just grow up.
As far as I'm concerned, anyone who thinks this was an okay thing to do is a goddamn jackass, to put it more politely than I could. It really was an unfathomably appalling decision on their parts.
DannyBoy's joke however, I must give credit to.
It's getting to that point...
Or the party for little big world has them tilting the building over on the guests.
PS Home's party will involve a bunch of people breaking into your house and standing around, wanting to see your trophies.
the Aztecs reference was meant to exaggerate the point that animal rights activists are just too militant. i must remind myself that saying stuff in that fashion does not translate to text.
you have to remember that they did not slaughter the goat for this event. they got the goat's remains from a butcher. it says so in the article.
and yes, both the Greeks and Romans had animal sacrifices. the Romans even had people stand under the flow of blood coming from the animal. these were the public displays in Rome, not even the mystery religions that did this.
essentially all they did was take the carcase of a goat and put it on display. i think if you oppose this, then you better also oppose the Bodies exhibit in NYC. they're not that different. the Bodies exhibit is for science, this is for history (i know the real reason is for marketing, but it has a historic background to it). i mean, shit, they held this event in Athens. this is the ancient culture of the people there.
"as a fan of history i do not see any problem with reenactment."
Soooo... They should totally reenact the holocaust for the next WWII FPS? They could get the remains of people from the local morgue and stack them all on top of one another. It's not like the corpses have any other use anyway, right? They would have just been wasted by burial. Every one wins!!!
All of the bitches that balk at the thought of a dead goat should be forced to work on a farm for a month.
yeah... go ahead... blow it up way out of proportion and replace the one goat with millions of humans who were killed because one man thought it to be his "Final Solution," not because goats are used at a butcher's for meat to feed people. since when is ritual sacrifice equivalent to mass genocide?
Is there a tag for the games industry finding ways to have media outlets trudge up their dirty laundry?
JOKING?! where were the cat pictures?! (other than your avatar)
LOL
And come on, that party was in UK, so expect UK culture to be a tad different from yours. I have UK friends and their like Girls-Gone-Wild-Country 24/7.
Let me ask you this, when oh when will it ever happen in NA or Japan, a Video Game PArty with naked breast chicks? When and where please? Nintendo? hah thats a joke, Xbox? nothing original there, but I wouldnt be surprised if they mimic something like this and throw a Leasure Suite LArry party with also half naked chicks. (Gates, if u make wut i just said ill sue u).
I applaud sony for being fucking original and doing something that relates to the Culture mixed with Video Games. Fek them Animal rights activists, their suing sony while eating a Tender Loaf Beef Jerky. Friggin hipocrits that have no right to say anything.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daily_Mail
it was especially interesting to read the part about them supporting Mussolini and Hitler in the 1930s...
It is part of our past as humans. Why is anyone complaining? It is bad enough our schools dont teach the truth about greek and roman times. They pretty it up to make it "family friendly" instead.
I prefer the cold hard truth.
My tuppence.
*keeps playing God of War 2*
It's a stupid move, doesn't matter if your PETA or somebody who doesn't care. To bring that into public forum is just desgusting and while, as art, it may have merit. It doesn't mean its acceptable, especially for a huge corporation like Sony. How incompetant can one company be?
If you could promise me a Greek Orgy at every game launch I would go buy that huge black brick and be a proud PS3 owner. Next time they should invite Malcolm McDowell.