Square Enix Sued: “They Showed Chinese Being Killed!”
- Categories: Games, News
- Date: May 11, 2012 02:41 JST
- Tags: Censorship, China, Courts, Litigation, Politics, PS3, Shanghai, Square Enix, Xbox 360
Square Enix is reportedly being sued in China for publishing a game which allows the player to kill Chinese, and which damages the image of that great nation by most unfairly depicting Shanghai as a squalid hotbed of criminality.
The controversy centres on “Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days,” which involves the violent antics of two mercenaries rampaging through the Shanghai underworld.
A Chinese lawyer apparently happened upon details of “a game where you could kill Chinese” on a Chinese forum, and soon became incensed at the “unbearable” content contained in the title.
He then enlisted the help of Chinese Internet denizens to gather screenshots of the heinous game in action, and had soon catalogued numerous examples of such outrages as depictions of filthy Chinese slums and the player being able to freely shoot the Chinese townspeople thereof.
This, he asserted, was nothing less than a “Chinese slaughter game.”
Accordingly, he filed suit against Square Enix accusing them of “damaging the image of Chinese people,” “mocking China and the Chinese people,” and “causing people to misunderstand China.”
Claiming “it is my duty as a lawyer to protect the rights of Chinese,” he is demanding an apology and compensation from both IO Interactive and Square Enix for slandering the Chinese people and causing them so much mental anguish (some apparently played it), although only to the tune of 10,000 yuan ($1600).
It is not clear what his chances of winning the suit are, but ominously he proclaims that:
“If I am victorious, it will establish a precedent allowing us to sue others – we will be able to strike a great blow against foreign companies who think they can insult China.”
Given the unfavourable depiction of China in the most recent Deus Ex title, this is probably not a precedent Square Enix would wish to see set.
The initial release of Kane & Lynch 2 displeased many Chinese (despite it not being released in China), but at the time nobody thought to sue the publisher – though after realising the publisher was Japanese, it seems their enthusiasm increased markedly.
The game itself was not directly developed by Square Enix (that honour falls to IO Interactive), being instead published in 2010 by Square Enix subsidiary Eidos Interactive, and only distributed by Square Enix proper.
Despite being poorly received and rubbished even by the notoriously supine gaming press, it still managed to sell a million copies.
Although China’s efforts to censor foreign game publishers are nothing new (most notably, Paradox Interactive was subjected to a blanket ban on their games for depicting China as multiple states in WWII, a ban it subsequently ignored), Square Enix seems intent on expansion into China – suggesting it may soon find all its publishing activity subject to party approval if it wishes to continue there.
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It's trully offensive. Real Chinese don't just die, they explode.
As once said by an immortal anon:
No loli no care....
An anon I can bow my head to
Its ok to make a movie of themselves that chinese kill chinese not by a foreigner. FUCKING CHINESE MORON!
“If I am victorious, it will establish a precedent allowing us to sue others – we will be able to strike a great blow against foreign companies who think they can insult China.”-- this guy is already in itself an insult to Chinese and he doesn't even realise it
Houses don't have hoods.
Everyone should be blue in video games. That way you can rape, murder, and pillage and no one will care.
There gonna shoot you a nuke right on the hood of your house
And it's ok that Chinese kill other races.
You win, China! You're the immortal Space Marines!
ahahah ,this made my day ))
so why take action now when the game was release on 2010? it taken one of the lawyer 2 years to not explode to sue square enix. i bet square will sue them back for copyright
They exploded quite well in Mercenaries 1 and 2 and in Operation Flashpoint 2
OMG that comment made my day!
This lawyer got it wrong in so many ways being butt-hurt over a video game...
He is royally pissed off that the game does not feature levels like 'bridges made out of garbages', 'apartment complexes that look like junkyards', a 'yellow-green' Gundam-ripoff boss fight, a sewer level with 'exploding manholes', and probably missing a scene of a bad-guy sitting on a chair and then said chair blows up and sends shrapnel up his manhole...
*clears throat*
Beside, SquareEnix only published it, and the whole thing was made by Eidos and--
...
...
...
Rename the game to "KAIN and RAZIEL: Vampiric Days" and I guarantee they won't give a sh*t about two time-traveling vampires starting up sh*t in the orients...
What you did there is to everyone's liking.
I thought Americans explode.
I mean, just look at their belly...
Oh you're so funny, because every American is fat. You fucking retard.
I remember some American guy who was too fat to fit into his seat on a plane, so he had to pay for the second seat.
He later sued the aviation company, saying that their seat should be larger anyways, since those where too tight for the average American citizen. He won.
I wonder how he did it, considering only a small percentage of the American population is actually fat, according to you.
I'm just being curious.
Uhm...It is like that not matter who you're talking too. If you insult an entire culture based on a small percentage of the population, then it is a false accusation that will insult others. You can say "America is full of fat and ignorant people" or "China is full of explosive products and people running over others to avoid hospital bills" both sides will take offense. They are both stupid comments thrown by both sides.
7:21
I also remember a fat chinese kid in china that publically bullied his mother into buying him a toy in the middle of the street while others watched in amusement. He than proceeded to gobble down a stall's worth of food while his mom desperately begged on lookers first for help, then tried to shoo them away and their cameras.
Tell me....which is worse?
@8:15
What is the fuck with that idiot term and how do you manage to attach it to anon 8:11? And how is "stern parent" even relevant to the thread?
Ppl should stop giving so much fucks for these insignificant idiot antics. By this I mean the chinese lawsuit, sancom hateposts, and comment bashers (though I guess this includes me as well)
8:11
Whats's wrong with that?
@07:58
Chinese Eric Cartman?
Living in america, I can honestly say I have seen some of the fittest people on the face of the planet, many even without being a work-out freak. And I have been to many countries.
America USED to have also the fattest....but now other countries are giving them stiff competition i.e. brazil, china/
You're funny too.
Insult any Third or Second World and people say: "didn't expect any better"
Insult America, and they say: "you're a retard"
It just shows how much people are tolerant around these parts.
Nice avoidance of the subject, faggot.
08:11
Instead they go to school and shoot down everyone on sight.
You're right. American do have more control over their children.
07:58
What's worse?
I'd say:
The American parents who gave their child an Xbox 360 for his birthday, captured the moment on video while the kid was unpacking the present, laughed at him as soon as he realised the box was empty, and put the video on Youtube.
Also, I have no idea what this has got to do with 07:21
08:11
Hey at least those parents have control over their kids unlike the chinese....
the idea of 'stern chinese parent' is rapidly deteriorating, thanks to 'little emperors' like you.
why is it relevant? behavior of one fat idiot vs another, except one did not publicly humiliate his mother twice in front of national camera and hundreds of onlookers.
I hope the Zombies don't get legal representation next.
Maybe not exactly zombies, but "zombies" did. At least the black ones.
(RE5 anyone?)
I remembe that, the most incredibly stupidest thing I've ever heard.
Reminds me of the season (3 or 4 i think it was) where muslims were depicted as the bad guys in that season of 24 with Kiefer Sutherland.
Before, there were serbians and whatnot, but lo and behold, we get muslims and/or people of middle eastern descent and voila, a PSA has to JUST air before the seasons first episode from none other than Kiefer Sutherland himself saying "yeah um, this is just a show, you know, don't take it too seriously, heh..."
Fuck man people are so damn delicate...
You're are right. The entirety of the First World are becoming delicate nancies. I mean, in Australia you can't even fire kids in retail unless you have their parents come in for meetings. It is fucking ridiculous.
should've just stuck to russian bad guys. because they're so bad-ass they don't care how they're portrayed.
03:20
One of the most lame moments in mr. Overly defensive easily offended black persons life.
Oh wait..
well it wasnt this ridiculous (even though in my opinion ALL legal suites against story content on video games are ridiculous) and in the end RE5 got a gold edition. Gamers hated it anyway and now it's in the past; China needs to stfu. How about we make a game where it's just a metaphorical china, but we put a giant caricature filter over the entire representation of the country? that'd be better.
Oh now that would be oh so sweet. I want to go to that trial!
Square Enix should have made the game more realistic.
Criminals pay off politicians to make buildings out of garbage blocks which collapse and kill Chinese or develop shitty Shinkansen knockoffs that crash at 200kmh and kill Chinese.
Oops, That's right! Truth is forbidden in the PRC!
Have you played the game in question?
Shanghai is a dirty, nasty place, the protagonists are either insane (Lynch) or jaded sociopaths (Kane), and the only sympathetic character dies in a horrific manner. Corporations use the local military as their own mercenaries.
The rank and file Chinese citizenry get off light.
Yea sounds like the underworld alright.
Get out some more.
:) definitely buy this game .. kill chinese..
Pretty much sums it up. It's a game that tries to distinguish itself as counter-culture, but falls flat. Played it a bit at a friend's place, it was... boring, despite being nasty. There are decent criminal themed games out there, with their original perks, like noir, gta, etc.
I wouldn't be surprised if this is a stunt by the studio to call attention to a crappy game.
If it was a stunt there would be this horrible little rich kid squeeling "You can't kill me! My dad is the mayor of Shanghai!!!"
"My dad is Li Gang!~"
"depicting Shanghai as a squalid hotbed of criminality."
BECAUSE IT IS!!!! Ahahaha!!! (cough cough)
yeah I had top let that one out.
Seriously tho, Fuck the Chinese goverment, let people make games about whatever, hell there's about to be a game coming out soon on "homegrown terror" that's gonna cause some "controversy" supposedly.
Hell if it's any good, I'll buy it :D
It's just one lawyer being a retard, not really the government yo.
Well, the Chinese government has the same retarded way of thinking as the lawyer.
They're really no different.
:) chinese retard for suing over something like this.. it's just a game..
Jack Thompson in China?
These are the Chinese. I think we can safely generalize.
"Shanghai as a squalid hotbed of criminality" that's true, but china don't like people knowing how shitty their country is, remember their government ban everything there (the best way to keep the population ignorant)
This really is not the government but more of a retarded lawyer trying to get some money out of a company. The amount is so low it shows he wants someone to pay him off to shut up.
I just don't get China it already tries to kill its own citizens in the most horrifying/weird ways possible (getting run over twice or suddenly falling into a deep hole while minding your own business and exploding chair springs...the list is endless) compared to that a bullet through the head(in the game) is a Godsend XD
Ahh China the game is only trying to tell a slice of the tru...oh wait
Come people, he's a lawyer! WTF has it got to do with his nationality? Lawyers got to be lawyers, be it Chinese, Japanese or American.
Don't forget the ability to run over crying babies, since western games won't even let you kill them.
...the children in Skyrim just won't die...!!!
what's the deal.. it's just a game, it's not like i kill a real chinese .. :)