Sony "desecrates" Manchester Cathedral in PS3 game

Church wants apology, game withdrawn and pile of money

11 June 2007 9:04 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

The Church of England has demanded an apology, and substantial financial recompense, from Sony for using Manchester Cathedral without persmission as a location in PlayStation 3 title Resistance: Fall of Man.

The game features a violent, death-heavy shoot-out inside Manchester Cathedral, a location that has seen memorials for gun crime victims in the past.

The Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Rev Nigel McCulloch, told the BBC: "It is well known that Manchester has a gun crime problem. For a global manufacturer to re-create one of our great Cathedrals with photo-realistic quality and then encourage people to have guns battles in the building is beyond belief and highly irresponsible."

Sony is under fire for using the location withour proper permissions from the Church, and for possibly illicitly photographing the Cathedral's interior to render in full PS3 graphic glory.

The Church of England is demanding an apology, an immediate withdrawal and then reworking of the game and a "substantial" donation that will be used for charitable purposes and is apparently threatesning legal action if Sony doesn't agree.

Sony's defence is that it had got "all permissions necessary" and the shoot-out involves aliens, rather than Mancunian gun gangs, and is set in the context of an alternative world, making it more science fiction that real life.

The two sides are apparently going to be having further discussions later today.

Full tags

Gaming, PS3, Sony