The Sun slams 'sick' MadWorld publicity stunt

NewsPosted 20/03/2009 - 10:16am GMT

British rag concerned for Wii's 'successful reputation'.

British newspaper The Sun has once again attacked SEGA's mature Wii game MadWorld, slamming it for going "against the successful reputation of the best-selling machine, famed for being one that all the family can enjoy".

The news story, up on its website, carried the headline: "PUBLIC SICKENED BY GAME STUNT".

The headline is in reference to SEGA's recent publicity stunt for the game, which scored a solid 7/10 in our review. The company placed severed prosthetic arms in random locations across Britain, each one holding a copy of the game.

The article, however, does not contain any comment from a member of the public criticising the stunt.

A SEGA spokesman told the paper: “SEGA is delighted to be leading the way with adult games for the Wii, and we are sure that gaming fans will see it as a breath of fresh air.

“The arms used were very clearly black and white to reflect the comic-book nature of the game.

“We had a team of people carefully monitoring reaction to the arms, if anyone at all found them offensive we removed them immediately. But we have had no complaints from the public at all.”

Comments

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User Comments

CheekyLee

What is this 'family' talk, anyway? My family consists of me, my 24 year old girlfriend, and our 2 year old son. He doesn't play games, so does this mean we are not allowed to have a Wii? Last I checked, I was part of my family.

The comments in The Sun article are actually quite encouraging, with several posters taking a similar viewpoint.

Posted 10:02 on 21 March 2009

Woffls

I think they have a fair point about the prosthetic arms. Personally I think that was too much from Sega. Imagine taking your kids for a walk down the high street and they see a severed arm on the floor?

Of course The Sun are going to blow it out of proportion, they're a tabloid 'news'paper and we should be used to it by now. It's not just gaming that they will make half-assed attempts to report. Though, saying that the public doesn't like it without anything to support the claim is just bad reporting.

Posted 19:20 on 20 March 2009

bencrosaby

You see, this was a completely anti-gaming article. I don't know if anyone has ever heard the phrase "Lies, Damn lies and the Sun exclusives". The same applies here.

What annoys me the most by this is the fact that they labelled the Wii as 'family friendly'. No. They really should do their research before conjuring up articles like this by looking at other 18+ games and noticing the differences. And maybe even play them for a change.

Posted 18:31 on 20 March 2009

Wido

Sorry but what utter crap from the sun, I don't care if the game has violence. Seriously papers are total arses they need to start focusing on things on more important things than games with violence, these parasites which work for the media and slate games gets under my skin.

So let me guess, we could be having a similiar article about God Of War III as of the violence and the naked women? Pfft! Come back to reality its a game!

Posted 14:50 on 20 March 2009

Rickitis

The Sun is an awful paper full of complete crap, this just adds to their daily collection.

Posted 14:44 on 20 March 2009

RecoN

The Sun needs to go and sort its life out instead of the so called "public views" Seeing as SEGA clearly states "we have had no complaints from the public at all" Then id like to see where the complaints came from in the first place?

Well done SEGA for releasing a adult game for the Wii, the console isnt just for familys, no console has a label saying "Family console ONLY"

Posted 10:41 on 20 March 2009