"Slaughter", was the term Daily Mail used to describe Sony's God of War 2 promotional stunt.
According to Daily Mail, the corpse of a freshly slaughtered goat was the centrepiece of a party to celebrate the launch of the God Of War II game for the company's PlayStation 2 console. "Guests at the event were even invited to reach inside the goat's still-warm carcass to eat offal from its stomach", said Daily Mail.
Playstation Official Magazine was the source of the news and pictures. The magazine was pulled from shelves but some initial copies have already reached subscribers.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare said it was "outrageous" that the animal's death had been used"to sell a few computer games". The pixilated part of the image shows the goat's decapitated head hanging by a thread of tissue from its corpse, with blood dripping to the floor, but it was not pixilated in the Playstation Magazine.
Sony UK was quick to respond and stress that it "neither attended nor had any input into this event," which was "of an unsuitable nature" :
A goat was not 'slaughtered' at this event. An animal carcass was supplied from a butcher as a set dressing for an event based upon Greek mythology.
The event was organised by a Greek production company and was neither aimed at nor attended by UK media. In keeping with the theatrical nature of the event, the attendant media were invited to eat a bowl of food that purported to be from the animal - but in fact was a cooked traditional Greek dish (a meat stew as I understand it, to reinforce the illusion).
It is categorically untrue that "guests were invited to reach inside the goat's still-warm carcass to eat offal from its stomach."
As I said we in the UK had nothing to do with this event, and nor did any UK media attend. We were shocked to see the article in the official PlayStation Magazine (Contrary to what the Mail On Sunday implied of course, this is a publication licensed by us [for logo usage] but created, edited and published independently by Future Publishing), and immediately (we did this Friday morning - we did not do this 'after' the Mail On Sunday contacted us, as has been reported) took steps with Future Publishing to recall the publication and remove the offending article.
Unfortunately some advanced copies of the publication may have gone out to subscribers in the interim. The writer of this article did not attend the event and has portrayed the theatre as a literal occurrence. This is not a true representation of the event, but nevertheless we realise the imagery and the inaccurate description of the event would cause offence and have thus taken action to stop it from circulating.
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe does not in any way, shape or form condone cruelty or mistreatment of animals. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe takes the sensitivities of the general public and issues of animal welfare very seriously and is sorry for any offence or distress the event or perception of this event may have caused.
