Support NeoGAF

[deadhorse32]

Microsoft pays dear for insults through ignorance

....

One mistake that caused catastrophic offence was a game called Kakuto Chojin, a hand to hand fighting game. The fighting went on with rhythmic chanting in the background which in reviewing the game Mr Edwards noticed appeared to be Arabic.

"I checked with an Arabic speaker in the company who was also a Muslim about what the chant meant and it was from the Koran. He went ballistic. It was an incredible insult to Islam." He asked for the game to be withdrawn but it was issued against his advice in the United States in the belief that it would not be noticed.

Three months later, the Saudi Arabian government made a formal protest. Microsoft withdrew the game worldwide.

His investigations showed the Japanese, who had developed the game for Microsoft, had added the chant to the tape because they liked the sound of it without checking its origins. "They were chastised and corrected," he said.

Mr Edwards said it was better to be honest and open about these mistakes. It was all part of rebuilding that vital trust in the product.

....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1286066,00.html

 

[Mama Smurf]

Surely that's more the publisher's fault that the developers.

 

[Sho Nuff]

"They were chastised and corrected"

Despite the fact that all the Kakuto Chojin music was written by a guy who left Dream Factory months and months before its release ... the real people to blame are MS for letting it come out. Then again, judging by the quality of some of those MS Japan games, I don't think they even bother playing them in the first place

 

[Deg]

Isnt it an american game?

 

[Crazymoogle]

I think the chant should be the least of their worries. Kakuto Chojin was so bad we started playing it at the office just because of it. One of the artists had managed to make what would be known as a "Reiji video", where you can continuously combo and win a round against anybody.

 

[WarPig]

Nope, by Dream Factory, trading under some other name. The guy who composed the track I think wound up at Anchor later on.

DFS.

 

[Ghost]

Best thing about the game was the pre-release version when all the placeholder images were cute cat pictures....no really, it was great.

 

[cvxfreak]

What if the message were in Japanese instead of Arabic but said the same thing? I wonder what would've bene done then...

Although it's virtually impossible.

 

[GSG Flash]

I was offended by both the game and the chantings. It was a disrespect to the Quran that one of it's verses was in such a horrible game.

 

[God's Hand]

Boo hoo... why do people get offended? It's useless.

 

[Redbeard]

What was the chanting in Ocarina of Time's fire temple? I seem to remember some minor controversy.

 

[teepo]

they removed the chanting from the ost for zelda64 as well in the later editions of the game

 

[tedtropy]

they removed the chanting from the ost for zelda64 as well in the later editions of the game

Didn't Ganon bleed actual red blood in the initial releases? I remember reading somewhere that later carts turned it into green...

 

[Ronin]

Didn't Ganon bleed actual red blood in the initial releases? I remember reading somewhere that later carts turned it into green...

Red in my copy.

 

[hirokazu]

the Japanese and first shipping of US OoT carts had the chanting and Ganon with red blood, the PAL version was released several weeks after with neither, and all subsequent releases in Japan and the US (including the GC versions) have had the chanting removed, and green blood.

 

[Prine]

Boo hoo... why do people get offended? It's useless.

Their has to be some level of respect, one minor chant can lead to racial slurs, indirect manipulation, singling out certain ethnic minorities etc Obviously not an extreme case atm, but one that should not be ignored.

 

[Bizarro Sun Yat-sen]

Everything that was wrong with Kakuto Chojin was MS's fault for screwing with the developers, rushing the game out before it was ready, etc.

 

[ohamsie]

Does anyone have a link to that article about the chanting in the fire temple of Ocarina of Time? I thought that chanting was really creepy and added to the mood of the whole level.

 

[DopeyFish]

Everything that was wrong with Kakuto Chojin was MS's fault for screwing with the developers, rushing the game out before it was ready, etc.

dude, the game was in development for soooo long.

 

[alejob]

Here's another article with other stuff.
How eight pixels cost Microsoft millions

Microsoft has also managed to upset women and entire countries. A Spanish-language version of Windows XP, destined for Latin American markets, asked users to select their gender between "not specified," "male" or "bitch," because of an unfortunate error in translation.

 

[DopeyFish]

Here's another article with other stuff.
How eight pixels cost Microsoft millions

aaaaaaaahahaha

 

[Johnny Konami]

Before I read the post - from the subject I assumed you meant they were chastised for making a terrible game! I'm actually dissapointed to hear it was for something else. More poor developers need to be chastised.

 

[Deg]

These things happen alot. MS have alot of coverage so i am not surpised its happened now and again. Mistakes happen and things can get missed out.

 

[snapty00]

I'm not defending Microsoft or that developer, but "boohoo" to anyone who got offended by it. Christians, Jews, Jehova's Witnesses, Buddhists, whites, blacks, Japanese, hispanics, etc. constantly deal with statements that might be construed as "offensive," so one offensive statement -- in an unpopular videogame, no less -- against Islam shouldn't lead to anymore than people shrugging it off like every other religion and race does on a constant basis.

 

[Blackace]

Well for MS it was the perfect excuse to completely recall and bury that piece of shit....

 

[TekunoRobby]

HA HA what a great article:

Microsoft has also managed to upset women and entire countries. A Spanish-language version of Windows XP, destined for Latin American markets, asked users to select their gender between "not specified," "male" or "bitch," because of an unfortunate error in translation.