Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

I suppose it’s to be expected that the bigger you get the more shots people take at you, but Sony’s now getting a threat of legal action from the Church of England. The Church Of England is unhappy with the use of a particular cathedral in Resistance: Fall of Man. I think this is garbage for three reasons.

One, ownership: it’s not a Sony game, it’s an Insomniac game.

Two, context: In Resistance, you fight off waves of decidedly nonhuman aliens in an already bombed out, wrecked version of the cathedral in question for a small part of a single level early on in the game. You are Nathan Hale, the hero, fighting off bad aliens in the cathedral. You’re not seeing priests summoning devils in the cathedral. You’re not harming priests or nuns in the cathedral. You’re not even harming the cathedral itself since it’s part of the scenery of the level — the place is already a bombed out shell of a building.

Three, freedom: Do game developers have to ask permission to make a replica of something in a game that is absolute fiction? There could be some squirrely law in the United Kingdom that might need it, but I think Insomniac doesn’t have a UK office and did all the work in the US. How about all those World War II games, did they all get permission? I just flew a mission over London in Blazing Angels last week, did they get permission for that?

It’s called fiction. Look into it.

Via Slashdot, and Gamespot.