p2pnet - rss feed: Sony sued: Manhunt murder
p2pnet.net News:- At least three murders have been linked to video ‘games’ produced by Take-Two Interactive’s Rockstar.
The most recent was the death in England of 14-year-old Stefan Pakeerah whose friend, Warren Le Blanc, 17, admitted beating the younger boy with a claw hammer and stabbing him repeatedly.
Dubbed The PlayStation killer by the British press, Le Blanc was said to have been ‘obsessed’ with Manhunt, a ‘game’ in which “You get to meet - and brutally kill - some very interesting people,” as a caption under a pic on CNET Networks’ GameSpot promises, also guaranteeing ” sadistic fun for players”.
In Manhunt, Rockstar games’ Sony Playstation 2 production, the player ‘takes over’ death row inmate James Earl Cash and once that’s achieved, must “survive”.
Some UK stores banned Manhunt but according to a BBC report here, it went “flying off shelves” in others and sold out Manhunt has sold out at HMV’s branches in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool and Belfast.
HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo is quoted as saying that it didn’t follow the lead of another chain, Dixon’s, by refusing to sel the game because “it did not believe it should act as a censor”.
Outlaw.com says Stefan’s parents have hired Miami lawyer Jack Thompson, “a crusader against violent entertainment” to sue Sony Computer Entertainment and the games company behind Manhunt for £50 million (close to $100 million) for wrongful death.
Manhunt was completely banned in New Zealand and Rockstar’s, Grand Theft Auto III, is also blamed for inspiring two brutal murders in California where a “gang evidently craved media attention and shared a fascination with the video game ‘Grand Theft Auto III’.”
Haitian civil rights groups filed a lawsuit against Grand Theft Auto: Vice City because they say it instructs players to “kill the Haitians” and awards points for each kill.
Sony is one of the major record labels that’s currently terrorizing file sharers for swapping digital music online.
August 5th, 2004 at 1:04 am
ugh not again. when will people learn? books, games, movies, other forms of “entertainment” don’t compell a person to do harm. Feel sorry for sony (sorta) for being turned into a scape goat for a larger social issue. It’s not the first time, Steven King has been blamed all because a person read a book or two of his and went out and harmed someone; dungeons and dragons was blamed for something or other (the specifics escape me right now) list goes on. If anything these games and other forms of entertainment highlights a larger social issue where violence has become more tolerable.
Why arent they suing the parents of the kid who commited the crime? Why not put blame where it truely belongs; with the person(s) who raised them?
August 5th, 2004 at 3:04 am
According to the Register, police have now confirmed that the victim owned this game, not the killer. This is really fucking sad since I can’t see the parents not being aware of it when the police were - in other words the parents of a murdered child are now trying to cash in by misleading both (potentially) the courts and the public. URL = http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/08/04/manhunt_murder_claim/
August 6th, 2004 at 4:41 am
keep making grand theft auto games because there very good
August 7th, 2004 at 4:02 pm
Some people are susceptable to suggestion through the media. Actually, you would be a completely different person if you never played video games or watched TV as a kid. Subconciously you may have a very “videogamised” view of the world and not even know it. Do not think humans are completely immune from suggestion from the media.
October 19th, 2004 at 8:44 pm
All this sh*t that has been happenin with these games r not the producers fault it is the parents of these chirldren who should be blaimed.I meen some kids might have some kind of retardation and think that people have 9 lives like cats or sometin and shoot his or her friend or they could just be retarded and they dont know what they r doing.It should be the parents of these children fault.They should make it so that parents have to like sign there signature and crap when they buy a game for there kid so it can be there fault because they sighned it.Keep making Vice City Games already pre bought San Andreas.
October 21st, 2004 at 5:39 pm
heck why stop there make a manhunt 2
November 30th, 2005 at 11:17 pm
While I do mourn for the Pakeerah family’s loss, I don’t think they deserve one cent off of Sony. When, may I ask, did Le Blanc confess to Manhunt ‘obsessing’ him (as it was put)? Also, if it did affect him, how did he or the Pakeerah’s son get a copy? Where were their parents? If they cared to prevent something like this, they would monitor what their son played and who their son befriended.