We’ve had West & Zampela, a lawsuit between disgruntled ex-employees and ex-employers, and at the moment we have two huge companies fighting with each other as Zenimax and Oculus Rift trade legal blows in various court rooms. However, we’ve not had an entire country get a bit miffed about a video game, at least not recently and that country is Bolivia and it’s rather annoyed with Ubisoft for setting Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands within it’s borders.
“We have the standing to do it (take legal action), but at first we prefer to go the route of diplomatic negotiation,” said Bolivian Interior Minister Carlos Romero. Ubisoft have responded and pointed out that the game is a work of fiction and chose Bolivia due to it’s “magnificent landscapes and rich culture” and not because it is world’s third-largest producer of coca leaves, used to manufacture cocaine.
“While the game’s premise imagines a different reality than the one that exists in Bolivia today, we do hope that the in-game world comes close to representing the country’s beautiful topography,” Ubisoft said.
I’m not sure what sort of legal action Bolivia could take, setting a game – or indeed a book or film – in a real life location isn’t exactly unheard of. If this legal action does go ahead then perhaps London could sue Gerard Butler for destroying half of it during his terrible London Has Fallen film.
Source: Reuters
Avenger
Subtle as always Tuffcub, but you’re bang on the money.
The end of the second paragraph has me in tears of laughter.
Andrewww
Although I mostly agree with you, if you take Bolivia’s perspective for a moment, the game picturing the country as a drug hell is not really that funny. I was quite surprised about it when I played it, and it wouldn’t have damaged the game one bit in my view, had they gone for a fictitious setting like in Far Cry. But game developers in general have not really been known as considering the real-world consequences of their doings, as long as they expect to make money with it.
TSBonyman
I agree, it’d be fine if it was a game about hunting time-travelling unicorns but when it’s an authentic simulation set in the present-day i think developers could be a bit more sensitive to the location.
Tuffcub
Picturing that the entire Met Police force in London are terrorists isn’t exactly great for tourism is it? Fortunately sensible people can differentiate between fiction and reality. The Bolivian government, it appears, can not.
TSBonyman
I’m not sure that they would be as concerned if it was a movie.
Andrewww
Everyone knows London weil enough to separate fact from fiction, but Bolivia..? No way. There are usually many millions spent on advertising countries to increase tourism. This is the worst nightmare of the Bolivian tourism board.
Starman
From the games store description it says the cartels are in collusion with the government, this is probably the part they don’t like. They can’t exactly plead that Bolivia isn’t known for it’s drugs trade.