EA's Riccitiello: Journalist to Blame for Taliban Uproar
EA CEO is surprised by the kerfuffle
"The controversy... kind of caught me by surprise", so said Electronic Arts' CEO John Riccitiello to the great and the good at the recent Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media conference in the States this week.
He was referring, of course to the controversy regarding the ability for gamers to play as Taliban in the upcoming Medal of Honor reboot.
The fact that it came to light is apparently the fault of a staff writer at the Associated Press, who interviewed Karen Meredith, whose son, Army Lt. Ken Ballard, was killed in Iraq in 2004.
According to EA's JR, no one had noticed the Taliban fighting angle, "until a journalist decided to put the game box in front of a mom who'd lost her son in Afghanistan to create some controversy."
The furore, according to the EA bigwig, "says more about the newspapers than it does the game industry. Having said that we're incredibly sensitive to the challenges that a non-gamer who doesn't really understand what I've just described might imagine when a journalist who also doesn't understand a game describes it to her."
The whole thing, says Riccitiello, "tends to excite a little bit of angst." He then went on to repeat Frank Gibeau's statement in the light of UK defence secretary, Dr Liam Fox's inane outburst regarding banning the game, that EA is 'incredibly proud" of the title.
He was referring, of course to the controversy regarding the ability for gamers to play as Taliban in the upcoming Medal of Honor reboot.
The fact that it came to light is apparently the fault of a staff writer at the Associated Press, who interviewed Karen Meredith, whose son, Army Lt. Ken Ballard, was killed in Iraq in 2004.
According to EA's JR, no one had noticed the Taliban fighting angle, "until a journalist decided to put the game box in front of a mom who'd lost her son in Afghanistan to create some controversy."
The furore, according to the EA bigwig, "says more about the newspapers than it does the game industry. Having said that we're incredibly sensitive to the challenges that a non-gamer who doesn't really understand what I've just described might imagine when a journalist who also doesn't understand a game describes it to her."
The whole thing, says Riccitiello, "tends to excite a little bit of angst." He then went on to repeat Frank Gibeau's statement in the light of UK defence secretary, Dr Liam Fox's inane outburst regarding banning the game, that EA is 'incredibly proud" of the title.
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