2018 is shaping up to be a strong year for Sony, as well as Quantic Dream, as David Cage and company prepare to release Detroit: Become Human on the PlayStation 4.
That said, the game may run into some difficulties with certification, as some officials in the U.K. are up in arms over the level of domestic violence included within the game – including a potential scene where a 10-year old is beaten to death by her father. (Oof.)
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According to The Daily Mail, Childline founder Dam Esther Rantzen, as well as Andy Burrows of the NSPCC and others, have sounded off on this level of violence, questioning if whether the game makers are rewarding such actions within the game.
The video can be seen below, and it’s definitely not for the squeamish, as it shows said scene, with father first confronting a robotic maid (after she speaks with the child) and then showing the different possibilities with storytelling within the game, in which the child doesn’t necessarily die. However, it is one of the options available if the maid doesn’t make all the key decisions.
While Cage and his team are no doubt making this part of the storytelling, some feel it’s the wrong way to go. Rantzen noted that the game is “sick and repulsive” for taking such a route, while adding, “Violence against children is not entertainment. It’s not a game. It’s a real nightmare for thousands of children who have to live through these kinds of scenarios. The makers of this game should be thoroughly ashamed. I think it’s perverse. Who thinks beating a child of entertainment?”
Burrows added, “Any video game that trivializes or normalizes child abuse, neglect or domestic violence for entertainment is unacceptable.”
Cage has responded on the matter, saying that the abuse scene is “very strong and moving” in its “non-future setting.”
“For me, it’s a very strong and moving scene, and I was interested to put the player in the position of this woman. I chose this point of view,” he noted. “What’s important to me, and what’s important to Detroit is to say that a game is as legitimate as a film or a book or a play to explore any topic such as domestic abuse.”
But then Tory MP Damian Collins, who serves as the Chairman of the Culture and Spot Select Committee, added, “It is completely wrong for domestic violence to be part of a video game regardless of what the motivation is. Domestic violence is not a game and this simply trivializes it. I worry that people who play this who themselves have suffered abuse will use this game to shape the way in which they deal with abusers.
“It’s dangerous to plant the seed in people’s minds that the way to deal with abusers is to use violence against them. It’s counter-productive and could put them in even more danger.”
Finally, a spokesman for the Video Standards Council, which decides computer game age restrictions for products released in the U.K., noted, “Any decision to refuse a certificate is not taken lightly and to the extent we consider necessary we are able to consult our advisory panel of leading psychologists and legal experts.”
Sony Interactive Entertainment has yet to comment on the matter.
Do you think the scene has any place in the game, or has Cage and Quantic Dream pushed too far?
Detroit: Become Human will release on PlayStation 4 in 2018.
