During this weeks Paris Games Week, Sony showed off a slew of new trailers for titles, two of which were The Last of us Part 2 and Detroit: Become Human. In both trailers, instances of graphic violence were used throughout the entire trailer, sparking a huge conversation on the use of violence to sell video games.
Now, Jim Ryan – president of Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe and president of Global Sales and Marketing for Sony Interactive – has come forward to give his take on the issue in an exclusive interview with Telegraph. Acting as the host of the PlayStation Media Showcase for Paris Games Week, Ryan had a firsthand look at the trailers, and concluded that the use of violence was the result of the game being made by adults.
“The Last of Us obviously is a game made by adults to be played by adults. I should never prejudge this but it will probably be rated 18, I think it’s fair to say.” he said. “And there’s that market for those people who like that sort of game. Adults who like that sort of game. And I think we cater for that, and at the other end of the spectrum there was Concrete Genie, which my eight-year-old decided was the game she would like to play very much.”
Ryan was then asked about the lack of context surrounding the clips – in both trailers, violence just happens and there is no rhyme or reason as to why – and blamed lack of time as to why they couldn’t fully explain everything. I think what we’re trying to do is to portray qualities of the various games we had on show. And I think it is difficult when you have a clip of four or five minutes to synthesise a gameplay experience that can be measured in the tens of hours.” he said. “And, again, the studio was seeking to portray a game that will be rated as suitable for adults to play and that’s what we did.”
While Ryan did conclude the talk with Telegraph by saying he couldn’t speak for Naughty Dog, it’s likely that his answer and whatever Naughty Dog may say on the issue will be similar. For now, fans will have to wait until more information on the games come out to see if there was any context behind the videos.
[Source: Telegraph]
