Media reports indicate retailer Coop Norway will cease to carry 51 gaming and toy brands following attacks that killed 77 in a government building and youth camp. [UPDATE: Second chain pulls games as well.]
Media reports indicate retailer Coop Norway will cease to carry 51 gaming and toy brands following attacks that killed 77 in a government building and youth camp. Danish site Gamers Globe reports (translation) that the removal includes first-person shooters Homefront, Sniper Ghost Warrior, Counter-Strike Source, and the Call of Duty series, as well as popular MMO World of Warcraft. Alleged attacker Anders Behring Breivik mentioned playing World of Warcraft and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in a wide-ranging 1,500-page manifesto written before the attacks. "The decision to remove the games was made around the time we realized the scope of the attack," Coop Norway Retail director Geir Inge Stokke said, according to a Norwegian newspaper report translated by VG247. "Others are better suited than us, to point to the negative effects of games like these," he continued. "At the moment it’s [appropriate] for us to take them down. I wouldn’t be surprised if others do the same. We have to think very carefully about when to bring these goods back. The economy involved is of no importance." The move echoes that of German department store Galeria Kaufhof, which in 2009 removed all mature-rated video games from its shelves in the wake of a school shooting in the country that killed 15 people. Coop operates over 1,000 retail locations across Norway through a number of independent national co-operatives, selling everything from food and housewares to DVDs and cell phones. [UPDATE: Norwegian site ITavisen reports that major Norwegian entertainment retailer Platekompaniet has also decided to pull these titles from shelves (thanks to GamingVault's Herman S. Lilleng for the tip).]
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