Halo 3 controversy: Maddie, where are you?

Davey Winder
Sunday, 28 September 2008 18:45

Your IT - Entertainment

This was immediately seized upon by British gamers as being a reference to the abduction of Madeleine McCann last year, a story which has refused to go away mainly thanks to the untiring publicity her parents have created to keep the public aware of their missing child.

Bungie denies any intent to create publicity off the back of such a tragedy. In a posting on the official Halo forum, one Bungie representative states "All of the characters in our games are fictional."

He adds "This is both an unfortunate and unintended coincidence."

I believe him, not least because while the Maddie story has been a huge one in Europe (she was abducted in Portugal) the same cannot be said of the USA where most  people would be hard pressed to make the connection.

If Bungie wanted to generate sicko publicity, which it really does not need to do given the popularity of Halo, it could have chosen many more US-centric abductions to feature.

I doubt that this will be the angle taken by the British tabloid press once they get hold of the story on Monday.

The official Find Madeleine site continues to appeal to the public for help in finding the missing child, despite the closing of the official investigation into the case.