IndustryGamers - Informing the Games Industry

Mafia II Offends Italian Advocates, Take-Two Chairman Responds

Posted August 19, 2010 by Ben Strauss

The soon-to-be-released Mafia II is designed for gamers to enjoy an all too familiar gangster landscape, and that has Italian-American advocacy group UNICO National none to happy. The group wrote a letter to Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick, calling the game “insulting,” and has asked the publisher to halt the release and distribution of the game.

UNICO National believes that the game is an “inappropriate and insulting perpetuation of the pervasive and denigrating stereotype of organized crime being the exclusive domain of Italians and Italian Americans.”

"Why would [Take-Two] foist a game on their target audience of young people wherein they will indoctrinate a new generation into directly associating Italians and Italian Americans with violent, murderous, organized crime, to the exclusion of all the other 'mafias' run by other ethnic and racial groups," said Andre DiMino, UNICO president. "We are demanding they halt the release of the game and cleanse it if all references to Italians and Italian Americans."

Speaking with MTV Multiplayer, DiMino stated that the primary concern is that the Italian stereotypes are rather heavily displayed within the game. "I don't like to see any group denigrated whatsoever," he said. "This company has done things against the Haitians and the Cubans and now their target is Italian Americans. It shouldn’t be done to any group." He says he'd like the game cleansed of all references to Italian Americans. "And I don't want them to foist it on to other groups either."

Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick has issued an official statement in response: "Mafia II tells a compelling story about organized crime in America - a subject that for decades has been featured in movies, television shows and novels. Neither UNICO nor any other organization purporting to represent Italian-Americans has seen or played Mafia II." He says that Take-Two balances its "right to free expression with what we believe is a thoughtful and responsible approach." He also points out that as an M-rated game, it is "specifically not targeted toward young people."

Zelnick goes on, "We will only release a title that meets our standards: as art, as entertainment and as a socially responsible product. We aim to distinguish creative and compelling story telling that advances artistic expression from subject matter that gratuitously exploits or glorifies violence or stereotypes. I fully and completely stand behind our creative teams and products, including Mafia II."  

Ben is a recent graduate of Xavier University.  You can see him ramble on about gaming, gamification, military-related gaming and manly things on his Twitter @Sinner101GR.