Church of England demands apology from Sony

Jun 15, 2007 8:00 AM
Filed under Storage

GLOBAL - Resistance: Fall of Man features gun battles in Manchester Cathedral.

The Church of England has demanded an apology from Sony for using a recreation of Manchester Cathedral in its first-person shooter Resistance: Fall of Man.

Bishop of Manchester, the Right Reverend Nigel McCulloch, said: "For a global manufacturer to recreate one of our great cathedrals with photo-realistic quality and encourage people to have gun battles in the building is beyond belief and highly irresponsible."

According to the BBC, church leaders met on Monday to draft a letter and discuss what other action to take.

McCulloch said that the letter would demand an apology for using the cathedral. It would also ask for withdrawal of the game, or modification of the section of the game to remove the cathedral interior.

The letter would ask Sony to make a substantial donation to the church from the game's profits, and to come out in public support of other groups in Manchester fighting against gun crime.

"Sony Computer Entertainment Europe is aware of the concerns expressed by the Bishop of Manchester and the Cathedral authorities about the use of Manchester Cathedral in Resistance: Fall of Man, and we naturally take their concerns very seriously," said the company in a statement.

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

"While we believe that we have sought and received all permissions necessary for the creation of the game, we will be contacting the Cathedral authorities in order to understand their concerns in more detail."

A Sony spokesman confirmed that the company is in talks with the cathedral authorities. "We have spoken to the Manchester Cathedral authorities and will be dealing directly with them from now on," he said.