Sony’s God of War II launch party featured a real goat carcass and topless models, sparking outrage, a magazine recall, and an apology.
A decapitated goat, topless models, and a room full of journalists invited to embrace their inner Spartan. Sony’s Athens party for God of War II had everything it needed to attract attention. Unfortunately for its publicity department, the attention eventually came from animal welfare campaigners and a British newspaper demanding to know what, exactly, had happened to the goat.
Kratos Would Probably Have Approved
Held on March 1, 2007, the event turned the PlayStation 2 sequel’s Greek mythology into an evening of theatrical excess. A local production company supplied the centerpiece: a real goat carcass obtained from a butcher. Sony later said the animal had arrived dead and had not been killed for the party. Someone had nevertheless decided it belonged among the decorations.
Models fed grapes to guests, while a performer dressed as Kratos handed out garlands. According to the Mail on Sunday, the entertainment also included invitations to throw knives at targets and pull live snakes from a pit. Checking out the new combat system was apparently going to require considerably more audience participation than usual.
Sony said the evening’s challenges took inspiration from I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! Combine that reality-show appetite for squeamish contestants with Kratos’s world of ancient rituals and bodily destruction, and you can see how the pitch came together. The trouble was that somebody actually went ahead and booked it.
The Catering Required an Official Explanation
The invitation promised “warm entrails,” a choice of words Sony would soon have reason to regret. Reports claimed guests had been encouraged to reach inside the goat and eat from its stomach, turning an already grotesque display into a story about journalists helping themselves to a carcass buffet.
Sony denied it. Caterers had served a traditional Greek meat soup in china bowls, the company explained, and guests were not permitted to touch the goat. The food was part of the performance; nobody was supposed to scoop dinner out of the animal. After the festivities, the carcass was returned to the butcher. Even this party had a cleanup arrangement.
A Party Favor Sony Couldn’t Take Back
The evening became a public scandal in late April, when the Mail on Sunday picked up a spread in the UK’s Official PlayStation Magazine titled “Sony’s Greek Orgy.” Photographs brought the goat display to readers who had never signed up for an immersive evening with Kratos. The International Fund for Animal Welfare condemned the stunt.
Sony said the magazine’s writer had not attended the event and had mistaken exaggerated invitation copy for an account of what actually happened. The company also pointed out that Future Publishing produced the magazine independently. A recall affected an 80,000-copy print run so the article could be removed, although subscribers had already received advance copies. Sony said it had sought the removal before the newspaper approached it.
An apology and an internal inquiry followed. Sony conceded that using the dead goat had been in poor taste, leaving its publicity team with the unenviable job of explaining the bowls, the butcher, and the boundaries of the entertainment. Kratos got his sequel. Sony got a goat scandal and a magazine recall.