Ready for an incredibly uncomfortable 3:39 of financial news? This schizophrenic clip from Fox Business starts off with a mention of Vice President Joe Biden's meeting with video game industry representatives today and, from there, seems like it's supposed to be a straightforward rundown of how sales trends are shaking out. But the numbers and stock movements get shoved to the backseat as bumbling reporter Dennis Neal repeatedly tries to get Brean Capital director of research Todd Mitchell to make linkages to video game violence.
When following up a remark about Rockstar Games' parent company Take-Two Interactive, Neal offers up the following:
Take-Two has the urban game where it doesn't even have the coverage of ‘oh, gee, it's warfare' like a World War II video game. It's actually people shooting people in the streets.
He's talking about Grand Theft Auto, of course. "Doesn't even have the coverage of ‘oh, gee, it's warfare.'" Why, Dennis, are you suggesting that video games need to justify their content?
Standing outside a Gamestop on Manhattan's Upper East Side, Mitchell gamely tries to provide broader, less hyperbolic context to the stock market. But there's that reporter again, jamming the words "violent" and "violence" into every other sentence he utters. And, so clearly, so despereately hoping that Mr. Mitchell would please please follow suit. Pretty please?
Thankfully, Mitchell doesn't take the bait, talks about games as a larger landscape and re-focuses on the actual cause of gun violence. Y'know, guns.
Random fact: Kotaku bossman Stephen Totilo brought a Game Boy Advance in that very Gamestop. Thank goodness he turned out okay. For the most part.