Sorcery trailer accused of racism: Sony responds

Sony’s upcoming PS Move game, Sorcery, received a new trailer last week, although one fan wasn’t so pleased with the video.

The fan claimed that the voice-acting was “racist” and “stereotypical” from a particular character in the trailer.

The character in question is a travelling merchant NPC, who the disgruntled fan thought to be Middle-Eastern, by letting his complaints be heard in the comments section on the Playstation Blog.

Sony were quick to respond, as creative director Brian Upton addressed the accusations.

“Hmmm … it’s interesting that you heard it as middle-eastern. The voice actor was using a Russian accent. We wanted the merchant to sound like he had travelled a long way – that he was a wanderer in the world. That’s kind of hard to do if someone just speaks average American English.”

“The world of Sorcery is like Earth, but it’s not Earth. We started from a base of Celtic mythology, but we diverged pretty widely from it as the game world began to take on a life of its own. The merchant is from some place Far Away — where, we never say — so he speaks with an accent. He’s a magical creature like the faeries and the elves and the sylphs and the bogeys, and he makes his living wandering back and forth between the various magical realms and trading with whoever he meets.”

So it seems as if the argument put forth from the upset fan may of been a bit unnecessary, but it’s good to see game developers and publishers responding to comments.

Sorcery will be released exclusively for Playstation 3 on May 25th.

Check out the trailer for yourself. Racist?