Unreserved via full page advert: Sony apologizes to Manchester church again

Amidst pressure from the Manchester Cathedral legal team, Sony has reiterated its apologies for offending the Anglican Church and said that it’s doing so this time in an “unreserved” fashion – they’re going all out and even posted a full page ad in the Manchester Evening News, expressing their regret for the incident.

The firm first apologized last month after the English Church cried foul over the depiction of the Manchester Cathedral as a venue for carnage between humans and aliens in the first-person shooter Resistance: Fall of Man. It can be recalled that even if it did apologize earlier, the company seemed to indicate that it didn’t require the consent of the church to use its images. However, the new apology states:

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 apologise unreservedly to them for causing that offence, and to all parts of the community who we might also have offended.

And while Sony has softened its stance somewhat, the church is holding its tough line. If the church has its way, it will have one of Sony’s best-selling games off store shelves and have the Japanese firm donate to the anti-gun campaigns that the church recognizes.

“We still fear that the next buildings to be cloned for virtual desecration could be a mosque, synagogue, temple or other church,” says Rev. Rogers Govender, Dean of the Manchester Church.

In a show of additional initiative, the Anglican Church issued a guideline to retailers and game makers on how to avoid such incidents, urging them to minimize the creation of offensive content which can harm the public and offend various sectors.

Amidst pressure from the Manchester Cathedral legal team, Sony has reiterated its apologies for offending the Anglican Church and said that it’s doing so this time in an “unreserved” fashion – they’re going all out and even posted a full page ad in the Manchester Evening News, expressing their regret for the incident.

The firm first apologized last month after the English Church cried foul over the depiction of the Manchester Cathedral as a venue for carnage between humans and aliens in the first-person shooter Resistance: Fall of Man. It can be recalled that even if it did apologize earlier, the company seemed to indicate that it didn’t require the consent of the church to use its images. However, the new apology states:

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 apologise unreservedly to them for causing that offence, and to all parts of the community who we might also have offended.

And while Sony has softened its stance somewhat, the church is holding its tough line. If the church has its way, it will have one of Sony’s best-selling games off store shelves and have the Japanese firm donate to the anti-gun campaigns that the church recognizes.

“We still fear that the next buildings to be cloned for virtual desecration could be a mosque, synagogue, temple or other church,” says Rev. Rogers Govender, Dean of the Manchester Church.

In a show of additional initiative, the Anglican Church issued a guideline to retailers and game makers on how to avoid such incidents, urging them to minimize the creation of offensive content which can harm the public and offend various sectors.