Legal Niches

Chavez: PlayStation is Poison

By pete_gallagher

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez recently took to his weekly radio show to lambast videogames.

Chavez called Sony's PlayStation console 'poison' adding that, 'Some games teach you to kill.' Continuing his rant, Chavez said that games which feature players bombing cities or throwing bombs were being sold by capitalist countries in order to spark violence so that such countries could later sell more weapons.

Western countries also promote drugs, alcohol and cigarettes according to El Presidente, further leading people down the 'road to hell,' or capitalism.

Chavez suggested that Venezuelan should be churning out educational games.

In October, Venezuela's parliament gave the go-ahead to a ban on videogames that grants the country's consumer protection society full power in determining what titles would be outlawed in the South American country.

Thanks Santiago!

Updated: Edited the third paragraph for accuracy. Chavez, it appears, was referring to capitalistic society when referring to the promotion of drugs, alcohol and cigarettes, not games. Thanks Soldat_Louis.

Full post as published by GamePolitics.com on January 18, 2010 (boomark / email).