Indian-developed Hanuman irks Hindu devotees

by Andrew Yoon { Apr 20th 2009 at 9:45AM }

We applauded Hanuman, SCEE's first Indian-developed PS2 game, for opening up the games industry in the region. However, it looks like India is quickly following America's footsteps in protesting a video game.

Vamsi Krishna, spokesperson for Sanatan Sanstha, contacted us regarding Hanuman, a game which was described as "very disrespectful, disgraceful and an insult to all those devotees of Lord Hanuman and followers of Hindu dharma." Krishna then added that Hanuman is a "senseless video game with an aim to commercialize this role model for all devotees" and that SCEE's investment in the burgeoning Indiana development community "shows insensitiveness [sic] towards the feelings of others and ignorance towards a certain faith by Sony Corporation."

Any mainstream retelling of a religion is bound to some form of controversy. Looks like SCEE's attempt at expanding the Indian games market, while well-intended, didn't go as smoothly as expected. We hope that this minor PR blow doesn't curtail their efforts in making India one of the next premiere game markets.

Tags: hanuman, hindu, india, sanatan-sanstha, scee, vamsi-krishna

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

j.howlett @ Apr 20th 2009 10:20AM

i read somewhere that the people upset lived in america, not that that invalidates their feelings or anything. i still want to play it because it's the first indian developed ps2 game.

Dartmerc @ Apr 20th 2009 11:24PM

haha, I came here to comment that some oversensitive Americans must have moved to India.

Josh @ Apr 20th 2009 10:46AM

Really nothing to see here. Religious groups will always find something that bothers them.

Popfrogs @ Apr 20th 2009 1:38PM

"and that SCEE's investment in the burgeoning Indiana development community"

That's all well and good, but when is SCEE going to invest in Missouri's development community?

mgsrocks1 @ Apr 20th 2009 5:31PM

Missouri is a state and India is a country. Which is a better business investment?

Popfrogs @ Apr 20th 2009 6:01PM

*whooosh*

I see Andrew's proofreader has arrived just in time to duck the joke.

Dehshizknight @ Apr 20th 2009 4:28PM

My gosh, I'M HINDU and it doesn't bother me one bit. In fact, I was extremely proud that my ancestral country country developed a video game that stood a chance of being decent. Just like with the Muslim music in LittleBigPlanet incident, someone thinks they can speak for A WHOLE RELIGION just because they think they're devout followers... *Cue Hindu organization backing up SCEE* The same thing happened with the LittleBigPlanet issue; a Muslim group came out and asked why it was a big deal.

It's why I'm looking forward to that Ramayana game by Sony Online Entertainment.