New York City Councilor Calls For RapeLay Boycott

The Speaker of the New York City Council will be holding a press conference this morning calling for U.S. retailers to boycott the Japanese videogame RapeLay - which has never actually been released in the U.S. market.

The New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault has announced that Councilwoman Christine C. Quinn will join with the group for a news conference to "call on all U.S. video distributors to refuse its distribution or sale" of RapeLay, it said in a press release. The group describes RapeLay as a "teenage videogame" and notes that it was "just pulled from Amazon.com."

This should be a relatively simple request for U.S. retailers to comply with, since the game was never intended for release in the U.S. market in the first place. Two copies mistakenly appeared on Amazon.com in mid-February, causing widespread outrage (and a good deal of bemusement at the irony of that outrage as well) but were immediately pulled when Amazon became aware of the error.

Despite the obvious ignorance and pandering, Quinn's condemnation of RapeLay will no doubt play well with those who see videogames as a harbinger of the end times. Why the NYC Alliance Against Sexual Assault insisted on calling it a "teenage videogame" is a bit of a mystery, however; RapeLay was only released in 2006.

via: GamePolitics