Sony on Monday issued an apology for using a freshly slaughtered goat as a prop at its “God of War II” video game launch party in Athens, a publicity stunt that has outraged animal rights activists.
Sony hosted about 20 journalists at the March 1 event, which it called a theatrical dramatization with a Greek mythological theme. The goat, provided to the production company by a local butcher, was part of the set dressing, the company said.
The U.K.’s Daily Mail newspaper on Sunday published a story on the party, where female hostesses with breasts covered with nothing but body paint fed grapes to guests, who competed to eat the most “warm entrails” — a meat soup made to look like the goat’s internal organs.
…Sony said: “We recognize that the use of a dead goat was in poor taste and fell below the high standards of conduct we set ourselves.”
…Greek mythology-inspired “God of War II” for the PlayStation 2 console was the best selling game in the United States in March. The game has a mature rating and Sony said party attendees were all over the age of 18.
While sales of the PS2 remain robust, sales of Sony’s new PlayStation 3 are lagging those of rival consoles from Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) and Nintendo Co. Ltd (7974.OS)
This is not the first time that the Japanese electronics maker’s video game marketing has inflamed critics.
Last year, the company pulled a Dutch billboard advertising campaign for its the white version of its PlayStation Portable (PSP) handheld player. It portrayed a white woman aggressively grabbing the face of a black woman and was dubbed racist by critics.
Ken Kurita-Ditz
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