Sony Responds to Mail on Sunday’s Dead Goat Outrage

You've probably already read today’s earlier news that this weekend’s Mail on Sunday’s anti-videogaming front page headlines screamed “Slaughter: Horror at Sony's depraved promotion stunt with decapitated goat.”

Well, Sony has responded, to outline exactly what happened. In a bizarre statement, which reads almost like something out of a games industry version of Spinal Tap, it seems that Sony wants us to be crystal clear that nobody touched the goat and that it was returned to the butchers intact!

The God of War 2 launch event took place in Athens on 1st March with approximately 20 journalists from European countries attending the event from a variety of gaming and lifestyle media. None of the journalists in attendance were from the UK.

”The article in UK Official PlayStation Magazine (OPSM), from which the Mail on Sunday article was sourced, was written by a journalist who did not attend and done on the basis of the invitation for the event, which employed a degree of hyperbole in order to encourage attendance - the journalist chose to take it as fact!” a Sony spokesman said in a statement just issued.

Sony’s statement continues: ”The photograph was one of many supplied to the magazine to provide a balanced view of the event. Unfortunately, the article was sensationalised and focused on a picture that was unrepresentative of the wider event. When we saw the article for the first time on Thursday of last week we contacted the Publisher of OPSM who accepted that the article was not appropriate for their broad audience. On Friday, before we had received any contact from the media, they agreed to remove the centre page article before the magazine goes on general sale.

”The event was a theatrical dramatisation with a Greek mythological theme and, as part of the set dressing, a dead goat was sourced by the production company from a local butcher. Following the mainstream popularity of shows such as 'I'm a Celebrity, Get me out of here' a series of challenges were set for the journalists. The 'warm entrails' referred to in the invitation and in the Mail on Sunday article was actually a meat soup, made to a traditional Greek recipe and served to attendees in china bowls direct from the caterers. There was never any question of journalists being able to touch the goat, or indeed eat the soup direct from the body of the goat, as one report has alleged. The goat was returned to the butcher at the end of the event.”

”We recognise that the use of a dead goat was in poor taste and fell below the high standards of conduct we set ourselves. We are conducting an enquiry to establish the circumstances behind the event in order to ensure this does not happen again. We also apologise to anyone offended by the article in the OPSM (subscription copies were sent out ahead of street date).”

Still, Rob Waugh's positive review of God of War 2 which ran inside the paper can't have done Sony too much harm, eh?