Thompson Demands Wendy's Cut Wii Promotion
In a letter sent from Thompson to Wendy's CEO Kerri Anderson and forwarded to various gaming news outlets, Thompson demands that Wendy's "cancel the Wii Kids' Meal promotion immediately." According to Thompson, the mere existence of Manhunt 2 on the Wii platform results in a high level of "inappropriateness of the above upcoming promotion at Wendy's."
Thompson has previously claimed that Rockstar North's original Manhunt (PS2, Xbox, PC) has directly influenced violent crime. This March, publisher Take-Two Interactive pre-emptively sued Thompson under the expectation that Thompson would take legal action against Take-Two for Manhunt 2. Last month, the parties reached a settlement.
"[Manhunt 2] will feature, according to video game news sites, beheadings with hatchets, bludgeonings with baseball bats, the jamming of syringes into eyeballs, cutting opponents' testicles off, and 'environtmental [sic] kills' in which common objects in the field of vision, such as electrical cords to strangle victims," reads the letter addressed to Anderson. "One pro-video game industry site is referring to Manhunt 2 as a 'true murder simulator' when played on Wii." Thompson, who bafflingly refers to the Wii as a "kid-friendly...game platform," cites a 2005 American Psychological Association report linking video game play to aggression in teens, claiming that with its motion-sensitive controller the Wii will exacerbate that existing alleged causal relationship.
"A dear friend of mine worked for Wendy's and with Dave Thomas closely for years," wrote Thompson. "From that I know that Dave Thomas never would have tolerated the use of Wendy's good name to promote Nintendo's Wii, not with this game available on the Wii platform."
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pretty sure nobody takes him seriously anymore.