Game-maker must not sell real weapons, apparently

Electronic Arts takes pride in the realism of the Medal of Honor series. It appears, though, that the publisher might have made things a bit too real this time.

In response to negative feedback from press and consumers, EA has quit promoting sales of several real-world weapons that carried Medal of Honor branding and has removed a series of blog posts touting the products, which included a tomahawk and sniper rifle.

“The Voodoo Tomahawk has since been removed from our website because of the article ,” executive producer Greg Goodrich told Eurogamer. “That was an effort to raise a lot of money for charity, and we were well on our way to raising a lot of money with that tomahawk, but I don’t know what will happen with that now,” he continued. “That whole effort, we’ve been working with those partners because we wanted to be authentic, and we wanted to give back to the communities. Every one of those partners, none of them paid a dime for product placement – all the money generated went to Project Honor.”

Still, some viewed the move as being in poor taste, given concerns by some parties about the impact of video games on real-world violence. A piece written by Gameological openly questioned the morality of letting gamers buy real versions of the military-grade weapons they use in the game.

Goodrich, however, doesn’t really see the fuss.  “We’re making a first person shooter and it fits,” Goodrich said in defense of the products. “If we were doing Need for Speed we’d do something different. If I was doing FIFA it’d be something different. But we’re making a first person shooter about the war fighter. If we partnered with another brand it wouldn’t make sense and it wouldn’t be authentic.”

EA notes that it was not making any money from the sale of the weapons. It planned to donate its proceeds to Project Honor, an EA program connected to the Navy Seal Foundation and the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, which provide support to fallen and wounded members of the military and their families.

Some weapons, such as the MoH branded SOG Knives Voodoo Hawk tomahawk, have been pulled from sale, though it’s less clear if the McMillan C5 Sniper Rifle is also off the market.

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