Bangladesh angry over Sony's new SOCOM
Legal action threatened
With Sony's latest online shooter SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALs currently set for an Autumn release, the Bangladeshi government have made strong official complaints to Sony, who they believe portray Bangladesh as a 'terrorist state' in the new game. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Dhaka will make the request shortly, also notifying the American Chamber of Commerce and the US embassy of their grievances.
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Combat missions set in Poland and Morocco also feature in the new title, but it is unknown whether said nations are equally upset by their inclusion in SOCOM. Bangladesh stated that it expects its name to be removed from the game, and that if their demands are not met, legal action against Sony is planned.
"Any company can develop games for entertainment of any kind, but not by maligning any country," stated Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services head Sarwar Alam. "Sony should [give an] apology as it will never be able to prove that Bangladesh is, or was, a terrorist country," added Akteruzzaman Manju, president of the Internet Service Providers' Association of Bangladesh.
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Comments
It's unbecoming of a company like Sony to portray a country in this fashion. Sony should unreservedly apologise and take the relevant product off the market forthwith.
Bangladesh is right to be annoyed. why can't the japanese choose manchuria as a name? let's see how the chinese react!
Bangladesh is a muslim democracy of 160 million people. It is one of the few nations with a Muslim woman leader. But some how the japanese are creating a false story. why not choose Korea? they will get a bloody nose and so choose another country.
This is not the first time a company has offended a foreign government with its portrayal of terrorist activity in games. After pressure from Quebec politicians, the American arm of Sony Computer Entertainment had to censor a section of the game Syphon Filter: The Omega Stream set in a Canadian shopping mall and subway. In addition, the South Korean government refused to approve the release of Ubisoft’s Ghost Recon 2, claiming that the storyline within the game goes "way too far" in portraying conflict on the Korean peninsula.
The argument that the game’s portrayal of terrorists fighting to separate Québec from Canada amounted to little more than "hate propaganda", seems to be very close to the Bangladeshi position over SOCOM 3.
I hope the Bangladesh government sues Sony Games over this, this is outragous. I have been to that country three times and let me tell you they are one of the nicest people on earth. They might be poor like most of Asia but they are no extremists or terrorists like Sony portrays them to be.
Its a disgrace and no soverign country should ever be allowed to be mocked by any stupid game company.
I don't agree with this situation. Sony is not trying to portray the Bangladeshi people of being terrorist. They are only saying that there is a terrorist cell inside of Bangladesh's border. America doesn't mock or want to demean Bangladesh at all. I think that its great that Bangladesh has a woman leader. America has never even had a woman leader. I have never heard of Bangladesh before Socom 3 was announced. I think that if Bangladesh drops the suit, everything will return to normal. We don;t hate Bangladesh. We are just thuroughly confused as to why they are this offended over a video game.
If the foolish Bangladesh government had not brought this up, it would have simply been a game, that gamers would have played and done. Now that foolish, sorry excuse of a government just brought the attention and association of terrorism and Bangladesh in the same sentence. No one would have ever heard or read about the game's premise. Look at popular games that are set in many places such as the US, Japan and etc.. games like the GTA series or Grand Turismo, do you think everyone drives and acts that way on the streets. Of course not, but you don't see the US, Japan or Euro nations suing or complaining. It's just a game!
OMG! Its just a game!!! Geez!
Good work Sony!
Woohoo! Go Bangladesh! ....now, back to playing midnight club 3.
We need more people like ConcernedCitizen777
I think Sony's action is totally wrong and it is unfortaunate. Sony can't assume Bangladesh as such a way. I think Sony should apologise and withdraw the product from market.
Bangledesh needs to stop whining, who cares if we use their name for "game" purposes. Is there not land there, that is all that is being used for the purpose of the game, SCENERY. So shutup and deal with it.
well, judging from the current political climate, I think it's perfectly reasonable not to want to be even slightly associated with terrorism, don't you? Bangladesh is one of the few muslim countries, along with indonesia and other mid-asian countries, that are moderate and terror free.
It seems most Americans are ignorent about things happening around in this world