God of War II party goes wrong

PS2 News | Sony acting the (decapitated) goat.

Think the disastrous "all i want for xmas" campaign couldn't be topped for sheer, cringe-inducing awfulness? Well think again, because it's been comprehensively beaten. And, as with that ill-advised campaign, it's Sony that is behind gaming's latest watching-from-behind-your-fingers PR fiasco.

The sorry episode began when Sony hired a Greek firm to organise and stage a release party in Athens, to celebrate the launch of the PlayStation 2's God of War II. Said Greek firm went to work, booking pits of snakes, men in fur togas and women in, uh, body paint (and little else) to take part in proceedings.

So far, so tacky, but in truth it was the semi-decapitated goat that formed the centrepiece of the party that prompted UK newspaper The Daily Mail to report on the event. According to the paper, "Guests at the event were invited to reach inside the goat’s still-warm carcass to eat offal from its stomach."

Pictures of the "party" (one of which can be viewed in our Media Panel here) were then printed in the UK edition of the official PlayStation magazine, which is when the mainstream media stepped in, forcing a recall of all 80,000 copies of the mag.

Responding to the story, a spokesperson for Sony told the Mail, "It has come to our attention that at the God Of War II launch showcase, an element of the event was of an unsuitable nature. We are conducting an internal inquiry into aspects of the event in order to learn from the occurrence and put into place measures to ensure that this does not happen again."

None of which should put you off the tremendous God of War II of course, which we reviewed last week and loved to bits.

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44 Comments

Michael Kontoudis

4 years ago

ugh the boot wrote

sidzed2 wrote

I have an enormouse Greek family...

Sorry it's oxymoron at it's best.

Yeah, 'tis true. I do need to specify, enormous in NUMBER, not in girth (though some are not lacking in that regard either...)

But yes, I think we can all agree that this is a striking example of cultural differences gone awry, and that Sony should have taken much better care of the event.

stalkr99

4 years ago

sidzed2 wrote

I'm half-Greek, and thus I know the mentality and cultural differences which lead to such a fiasco.

*shakes head* - seriously, while the organisers were stupid, Sony are the ones who should know better than to trust a Greek firm to organise this. I'm sure the firm would have sacrificed a few virgins to Ares simply to be authentic if they thought they could get away with it.

that's very interesting sidzed2. but have you considered that you may need to pay more attention in class? The information may be useful one day if things don't work out

Infested Jibbs

4 years ago

Good point about killing a goat just for 'schock/wow' value ugh, that is a bit wrong, but they did talk about in the article people eating....stuff....out of it.I don't know if they 'stuffed' the goat with something edible and then ate out of it, or simply ate goats guts.

Odd stuff to be sure, though maybe not for them.Either way, the fact remains that Sony had no issue parading the party about in their official mag UNTIL the general media kicked up a stink, then Sony pulled the whole 'oh we didn't know, it was those crazy greek fellas, we simply paid them a tonne of money to organise some event and then closed our eyes and put our fingers in our ears and said lalalalala really loud so we didn't know they were going to do something like this'

True, they may not have, but they were the last filter before the images hit the press, and they let it through.

EDIT-

stalkr99 wrote

sidzed2 wrote

that's very interesting sidzed2. but have you considered that you may need to pay more attention in class? The information may be useful one day if things don't work out

What's this crazy cracker on about?

Crestfallen

4 years ago

Yeah, Sony aren't strangers to shock advertising. This is really tasteless and they are definately culprible since they let it through their mag. (The only organisation which outdoes Sony in shock value is PETA.

)

Every country is lacking in animal rights and I think Australia is one of the worst. We put thousands of sheep through horrendous conditions when we ship them to the Middle East alive. Why do we ship them alive to the Middle East, you ask?? Well people of Islamic faith won't eat meat that is killed by Christians and Australian fat-cat money making mother-**** don't have a problem so they ship the Sheep live and put them through living hell.

I don't know how they sleep at night.

Jaws

4 years ago

ObsoletE wrote

..when dealing with something more than Chicken Treat catering..

Hooray! Chicken Treat!!! That's what Sony should have done.. organised Chicken Treat catering for the night. I would have personally flown over to partake in the delight that is the Chicken Roll and Delux Chicken Wrap (aswell as naked painted women).

Viva les Chicken Treat!

Andronicus

4 years ago

ObsoletE wrote

ok, i know we have a few Greek descended people on the boards, so please correct me if i'm wrong as my knowledge of Greek cuisine is very limited, but i'm assuming that this is a traditional delicacy?

i know "Assume" makes an ass of u and me, but if so, then i really don't see the problem.

As you know, I am one of those Greek forum-users.
I can honestly say that I have never heard of a semi-decapitated goat being traditional in Greece or Greek culture.

This was a publicity event that is in poor taste.

The only thing remotely traditional about this was the offal inside the goat. It is traditional to eat offal, speciall prepared, in some parts of Greece. However, it is eaten off a plate, like everything else - not out of a goat carcass.

Furthermore, I read that the goal was slaughtered before the event.
If that is so, then it was likely slaughtered in the usual manner animals are slaughtered before being prepared for eating.

If this is so, then nothing was done wrong here. Goat meat is edible, as are other types of meat. I would think (albeit, I don't know at all) that this goat caracss was procured from another source, and then used in a questionable manner.

To call this traditionally Greek is wrong (just like plate-smashing - that is so put on for non-Greeks - yes, it is done in some parts, but it is not something that I have ever come across in my dozens and dozens of traditional Greek functions and events).

Just clarifying some points here, ObsoletE - no attack on you at all.

sidzed2 wrote

Come on...
It's not fair to say that Sony should not have relied on a Greek firm.

There are many reputable Greek businesses out there, and it's a shame that stereotypes dominate the perception of Greeks as people.

Granted, sometimes things are played up for the sake of pleasing non-Greeks who want to see something different (see my comment on plate-smashing...), but to say this is inherently a problem with Greeks that should mean non-Greeks should be wary of doing business with them isn't fair.

I'm not attacking you personally, by the way - I'm just commenting on your comment, which I disagree with.

Yes, Greeks have a different idea of what is acceptable, as do people from any culture, but I am certain that most Greeks that I know would not consider this publicity stunt to be in good taste (and I'm not limiting that to Greeks here in Australia - I'm talking about native Hellenes as well).

Sony must have known something about this.
Shame they had to perpetuate a negative view of the Greek people in order to promote their new game... real shame...

ObsoletE

4 years ago

Andronicus wrote

Just clarifying some points here, ObsoletE - no attack on you at all.

that's cool, i was actually hoping someone would clarify the points i made, as i did try to make clear in my first post that i really don't have any idea whether this is some sort of delicacy, or some special dish, or what. i mean, i knew goat meat (Chevon?) and dairy products from Goat milk (Feta) are fairly common in Greece, but i didn't know if the offal was a traditional specialty or whatnot. kinda like blowfish in Japan.

anyway, i hope i didn't cause offense by claiming you're all a bunch of goat-slaughtering, gut guzzling crazy people.

and now we've established that this ISN'T something typical of Greece, i guess the only logical conclusion is that Sony wanted it.

Bitchacho

4 years ago

I saw some nipplez in that shot. Would somebody please think of the children?!

Eyce

4 years ago

Mitchacho wrote

Would somebody please think of the children?!

I'm pretty sure you pitched a tent for their shelter from the image, Mitch.

troublemaker

4 years ago

Is it wrong to sorta wish you had an invite?

As for people seeing a dead goat, big deal. How many people eat meat? It doesn't come from trees you know (unless you're hunting monkeys) ... I think that western cultures do too much to separate/sanitise meat from it's source.

Publicity stunt? ... I say 'hell yeah!'

Bitchacho

4 years ago

Call me western, but I'm not sticking my hand down a half-decapitated goat to scoop some offal. I won't even eat my mashed potato if it has peas in it!

döppelgangbang

4 years ago

Capraphagy and naked Greek maidens. You lot and the rest of the whingers are prudes. I for one would love to have been at that party.

B3NBO

4 years ago

Sickening are wrong. God, sony come up with some silly ideas...

They really do suck with marketing consoles.. even if the console actually is rather snazzy.

Crestfallen

4 years ago

troublemaker wrote

Very true. Anyone here heard of battery hens??

B3NBO wrote

They really do suck with marketing consoles.. even if the console actually is rather snazzy.

Not so true. Not sure if you were around in the mid-90s but back then the word Playstation = cool.

Kaboth

4 years ago

crestfallen wrote

Every country is lacking in animal rights and I think Australia is one of the worst. We put thousands of sheep through horrendous conditions when we ship them to the Middle East alive. Why do we ship them alive to the Middle East, you ask?? Well people of Islamic faith won't eat meat that is killed by Christians and Australian fat-cat money making mother-f*** don't have a problem so they ship the Sheep live and put them through living hell.
I don't know how they sleep at night.

In a bed at night with a roof over their heads and ample food unlike half the struggling farmers in this country. Yeah it sucks for the sheep but farmers need to live too. If you wanna beat on someone over this, try the Muslims for having such ridiculous requirements for their meat eating.

4 years ago

Not a particularly classy publicity stunt.

Crestfallen

4 years ago

Kaboth wrote

crestfallen wrote

Ok, I didn't make it clear. I'm referring to the business executives over at Meat and Livestock Australia who have no problem shipping the sheep live just to make those few extra bucks.

Farmers in this country have plenty of business without the Mid-East. They struggle these days only because of the drought but don't worry too much, the Goverment's got (and has always had) their back.

But once again its those bastards at MaLA who are stiffing farmers. Meat prices have gone up but watch an episode of Landline and you'll see that farmers aren't getting anything from it.

The farmers who need your pity are the fruit and vegeis. Cheap importing is threatening their livelihood.

troublemaker

4 years ago

ugh the boot wrote

sidzed2 wrote

I have an enormouse Greek family...

Sorry it's oxymoron at it's best.

Totally off subject ..
But I think you mean tautology, as an oxymoron indicates a contradiction in words:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tautology
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/oxymoron

So ends the lesson boys and girls

ObsoletE

4 years ago

i don't think it's tautology either.

i think Ugh is pointing out that the typo has conjoined two otherwise contradictory words. Enormous, and Mouse. Enormouse.

a very large Mouse?

it's not an Oxymoron, but it's also not tautological.
it's just funny.

renegadesx

4 years ago

^

Yeah thats how I read it. I think somebody just needs to swtich to decaf

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God of War II

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Australian Release Date:
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Publisher:
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Developer:
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Players:
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