Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 row over terrorist section

By Ben Hurst on Nov 10, 09 09:44 AM

A political row broke out over levels of violence in a video game as shops opened early for its release today.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which went on sale at midnight, is expected to break sales records.

Crowds gathered in London's Leicester Square for a "premiere" complete with tanks and military costumes ahead of the epic hitting the shelves.

Described in press material as featuring "gripping and heart-racing action as players face off against a new threat dedicated to bringing the world to the brink of collapse", the game reportedly allows players to plot terror attacks against civilians.

Modern Warfare 2, developed by US company Infinity Ward and published by Activision, is rated as mature, for its "blood, drug reference, intense violence and language".

Labour MP Keith Vaz called for action to ensure the 18-certificate game did not end up in the hands of children, while fellow Labour former digital minister Tom Watson said it would be better to support the UK's video gaming industry.

Mr Vaz, the Home Affairs Select Committee chairman, told MPs during Commons question time: "It contains such scenes of brutality that even the manufacturers have put in warnings within the game telling people how they can skip particular scenes."

He asked what steps ministers were taking to ensure that violent games did not fall into the hands of children and young people.

"It's not about censorship, it's about protecting our children," he added.

Junior culture minister Sion Simon said the clearest recommendation of the Byron review - which last year looked into the risks faced by children from inappropriate video games - was that content suitable for adults should be labelled and sold as such.

"The game you refer to is a Certificate 18 game," he said.

"It should not be sold to children and the Government's job is to make sure that adults ... can get what adults should be able to and children are not in danger of being subjected to adult content."

Mr Watson said he had seen the game and it "wasn't pleasant, though no worse than many films and books".

He told MPs: "It carries a content warning, it is an 18+ game.

"It would be better for Members of this House to support the many thousands of games designers and coders and the many millions of games users, rather than collaborating with the Daily Mail to create moral panic over the use of video games."

Mr Simon said it was important to support Britain's "very large and important" video games industry and said the UK had a "national competitive advantage" in the field.

Mr Watson set up a Facebook group, called Gamers' Voice, with the aim of discussing how game users could "find their voice in newspapers and Government".

He wrote on the group's web page: "Are you sick of UK newspapers and (my fellow) politicians beating up on gaming? So am I.

"The truth is, UK gamers need their own pressure group. I want to help you start one up."