Most business blunders are funny as long as you do not own that particular business, and to pour salt over the wounds, Fortune compiled a nice list of this year’s dumbest business decisions.  Most of the corporations that made it there are pretty famous, and are composed of some of the world’s top companies (or in some cases, countries).  On the gaming front, Sony leads the pack by making it twice into the list.

Sony and Insomniac Games’ use of Manchester Cathedral as a backdrop for one of the levels in Resistance: Fall of Man, allegedly without asking permission from the church officials beforehand made it into 63rd place on the list.  The decision caused some trouble for Sony as church officials protested against the game.  According to Bishop of Manchester Nigel McCulloch, “For a global manufacturer to re-create one of our great cathedrals with photo-realistic quality and then encourage people to have gun battles in the building is beyond belief and highly irresponsible.”  Sony was later forgiven by the church even though Sony did not repent.

Sony once again appears on 61st place of the list due to their use of a decapitated goat to promote God of War II.  Animal rights activists went bonkers over that stunt.  Not only was there a gruesome dead goat on the party, but guests were also invited to reach inside the dead goat’s still-warm body, while topless girls dipped grapes into guest’s mouths.  According to a spokesman of the International Fund for Animal Welfare: “We are always opposed to any senseless killing of an animal and this sounds like a gruesome death. We condemn Sony’s actions. It is stupid and completely unjustified.”  Sony later apologized saying: “We recognize that the use of a dead goat was in poor taste and fell below the high standards of conduct we set ourselves.”

Another gaming company made it into the list.  Atlus recalled all 150 of its arm wrestling cabinets from arcades across Japan after reports of the machine breaking arms of its players.  According to them, the move was a precaution and that the machine wasn’t really strong.  “Even women should be able to beat it,” said their spokesperson.

Pooch:  Really stupid aren’t they?  I wonder how in the world did these decisions get passed their management.  But in hindsight, they are really funny too.

[Source: CNN]

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 18th, 2007 at 5:54 am and is filed under Gaming News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.