The Church of England is planning to sue Sony over the use of the Manchester Cathedral in Resistance Fall of Man. Sony did not seek permission to use the cathedral and church officials object to the game placing a battle where people (aliens?) are killed inside it's confines.
Church officials have demanded Sony pull the game from store shelves or they will consider legal action. Officials also called Sony "irresponsible" for choosing a city like Manchester, which has been plagued by gun violence. The Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Rev Nigel McCulloch, was quoted as saying, "It is well known that Manchester has a gun crime problem. For a global manufacturer to re-create one of our great Cathedrals with photo-realistic quality and then encourage people to have guns battles in the building is beyond belief and highly irresponsible."
It will be interesting to see how this situation plays out. The last thing the Playstation 3 needs is to have one of their system's best/only games removed from store shelves.
Check out Sony's official statement below
"Sony Computer Entertainment Europe is aware of the concerns expressed by the Bishop of Manchester and the Cathedral authorities about the use of Manchester Cathedral in the game Resistance: Fall of Man, and we naturally take their concerns very seriously.
"Resistance: Fall of Man is a fantasy science fiction game and is not based on reality. The game is set in an alternate and mythical version of Europe in the 1950s, in which the enemy are strange looking alien invaders seeking to destroy humanity.
"Whilst we believe that we have sought and received all permissions necessary for the creation of the game, we will be contacting the Cathedral authorities in order to better understand their concerns in more detail."
