To some it's fine art; to others it's videogame fodder. But to a handful of mass market retailers, the naked angel gracing the cover of Interplay's latest adventure game is simply too provocative. Because of this, Of Light and Darkness: The Prophecy, is having a hard time making it to the shelves, and its producers are crying censorship.
Interplay began making sales tours last month, giving merchants a sneak preview of the game, for a March 10 release. The apocalyptic adventure game, designed by well-known French artist Gil Bruvel, has a cover image of a naked angel ("Angel Gemini") huddled in a ball. As far as tits-and-ass goes, the image is benign, but Interplay announced today that several mass retailers (including Costco) have turned it down as being too suggestive.
"This is a big deal for us, to have this renowned artist do our cover, as well as the whole game," says Kathy Carlson, an Interplay spokewoman. "This is fine art - it's not just trying to get people to buy it because it looks provocative."
Censorship is nothing new to Interplay. The cover of its hyperviolent car-crash game Carmeggedon was rejected by CompUSA (which also refused to carry the game Postal) and Wal-Mart last fall, in part because of its blood-splashed cover. Interplay simply removed the blood from the image and it was reinstated on the shelves.
This time, says Carlson, redoing the cover is not an option. "This is such a different issue - this is art, a painting we've put on our cover. You'd be asking an artist to change his message."
Interplay is, however, working on a deal with its retailers, which would possibly use a slipcover or a sticker to cover the objectionable parts. Although Interplay wouldn't release information about what percentage of game sales come from the stores that refuse to carry the title, they noted that sales figures would be "affected."
Ironically, although Interplay is trying to make a splash with the story in order to change its retailers' minds, the businesses themselves are being kept in the dark. Calls to Kmart, Costco and Wal-Mart revealed no one familiar with the issue.
Bruvel, meanwhile, will open a one-man show in April at the Tamara Bane Gallery in Beverly Hills. The game he helped create will be included in his new show, along with more traditional work in fantastic "visionscape" drawings. Although he also specializes in "erotics," according to his Web site, they aren't particularly racy.
Bruvel was unavailable for comment, but Tamara Bane Gallery co-owner Robert Bane said in a statement that: "Bruvel's artwork is collected throughout the world. It is unfortunate that in this day and age, someone would try to censor fine art."
