Sony prints apology for violent video game

updated 9:21 a.m. ET July 6, 2007

LONDON - Sony issued a public apology Friday for a violent video game that features a bloody shootout inside an Anglican cathedral, but it did not address the Church of England’s demands that the company withdraw the game.

The church had demanded Sony Corp. stop selling the game “Resistance: Fall of Man,” which includes a gun battle between an American soldier and aliens inside a building that resembles Manchester Cathedral in northwest England.

The entertainment giant said in an apology, published Friday in The Manchester Evening News, that company officials had met with church community leaders and Sony acknowledged the game had caused offense. The company said it now considered the matter closed.

“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 offense, and to all parts of the wider community who we might also have offended,” Sony Computer Entertainment Europe President David A. Reeves said in the apology.

Manchester Cathedral officials were not immediately available for comment.

Reeve also promised Manchester Cathedral would never be used in future Sony video games.

Sony, however, declined to comment on the church’s outstanding demands, which in also included a donation to the church’s education department, which works to fight gun violence in Manchester.

Reeves did say the cathedral would never appear in another game sold by the company.

“We now consider the matter closed, and will not be making any further comment,” the company said in a separate statement.

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