It looks like a fighting game for the Xbox ranked mediocre in most reviews is now being recalled from the U.S. and Japan because of potentially offensive religious content.
Supposedly, this martial arts fighting game Kakuto Chojin includes bits of the Koran being read as part of the soundtrack. A muslim friend once refused my request to use his "Call to Prayer" tape on my radio show - it was sacred music to him, and not supposed to be used for entertainment.
Kakuto Chojin recalled at GameSpot doesn't give much info, but it's about as much information as anyone seems to have. Penny-Arcade has weighed in with something funny maybe, but not very pointed or particular.
Perhaps the product was recalled because MS didn't want to offend Muslims. But maybe the product was recalled because MS didn't want to be associated with Islam? Probably they wanted nothing to do with religion at all - this might have been Penny Arcade's point. Unfortunately the gaming news sites have reported nothing more than a single sentence-worth of information, and forums are filled with uninformed speculation and idle provocation. These gaming journalists at sites like GameSpy and GameSpot are ostensibly paid to write about games - wouldn't this be the type of story that warrants a follow-up call to Redmond? This seems fascinating as well as important to pursue!
Wait a second...Gamespot has writers?
This whole issue is bizarre, no game sites seem to have any information on the entire affair, no spokespeople from Microsoft, no official statements, not even what I would assume be *some* press coverage from Japan.
Its one of those mysteries wrapped in a riddle wrapped in a potential lawsuit.
Posted by: Christian McCrea | 02/08/2003 at 09:37 PM
Hmm...it could be that nobody thought it was really a big deal since the game was dreadful and few purchased it. IGN gave it a rating of 6.2 out of 10, Gamespot 5.5 out of 10, and Gamespy said of it "If this was Fight Club, the first rule would be not to play it."
Posted by: oswald cobblepot | 02/12/2003 at 05:59 AM
Generating hype about a controversy is a pretty good way to sell an otherwise-unsellable game. Yeah, it's hard to sell a game that's been recalled, but we've all played Thrill Kill, right?
Posted by: Lulu LaMer | 03/04/2003 at 12:30 PM
Yeah, there was absolutely no reason given to stores for why the game was recalled. Well, at least there wasn't at the store level, perhaps the corporate offices were informed by Microsoft. At our store, we just received an email saying that we were to take the game off the shelves and destroy all copies immediately. Which, in itself, is strange. Usually we would just ship them back.
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