A few weeks ago, we had reported that Sony had drawn the ire of the Manchester Cathedral after the church had found out that the PS3 game, Resistance: Fall of Man featured gameplay that had a combat taking place inside a cathedral in Manchester. Now Sony has formally apologized to the people of Manchester.
The apology comes after a meeting between cathedral lawyers and Sony heads. In fact, Sony also issued an advertisement regarding the fiasco and the apology. Dr David A Reeves is the president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. He said, “It is clear to us that the connection between the congregation and the cathedral is a deeply personal and spiritual one. As a result, it is also clear that we have offended some of the congregation by using the cathedral in our science fiction game. It was never our intention to offend anyone in the making of this game, and we would like to apologize unreservedly to them for causing that offence, and to all parts of the community who we might also have offended.”
Dr Reeves later added that Sony would make certain that Manchester Cathedral was not used in any of its games again. However, the Dean of Manchester Cathedral is skeptical about it. Very Rev Rogers Govender says, “We asked Sony to withdraw the game. They have refused to do this. We asked Sony to make a substantial donation to community groups nominated by the Cathedral. They have refused to do this. We also asked them to sign up to the Sacred Digital Guidelines. They have refused to do this. We fear that the next buildings to be cloned for virtual desecration could be a mosque, synagogue, temple or other churches.”
The depiction of the Manchester Cathedral in the first person shooter RFOM could also have taken a bad political turn as the ex-Prime Minister of the United Kingdom had made comments on Sony.