Partial nudity delays 'Halo 2' for Vista

Microsoft is delaying the release of Halo 2 for Windows Vista after partial nudity on the game was discovered, the software giant said Friday.

Halo 2 for Windows Vista is now expected to hit the stores sometime in the first week of June, approximately two weeks behind the revised May 22 schedule. The game was originally scheduled for release on May 8, but was delayed due to some technical problems, Microsoft said at the time.

The software giant attributes the most recent delay to an "obscure content error" found in the initial production of Halo 2's map editor. That error was partial nudity.

Despite the error, Microsoft said it would be difficult to stumble across the offending content.

"This file is not in the game itself, nor will someone who simply plays the game ever encounter it," Microsoft stated.

The company has no plans to change the rating of its game, given it affects only the initial run of games and not subsequent shipments. Warning labels will be placed on packaging for the affected games, and Microsoft has developed a patch that can be downloaded to remove the content in question.

[georgiarat]

Microsoft and Nudity

Tell me it isn't so!! Microsoft needs nudity to boost sales?
LOL

[spacydog]

Meh

It was a bug. Move on.

[ogmanx2]

no...

...they need the rumor of nudity to boost sales.

[Fil0403]

Microsoft haters and ignorance

Tell me it isn't so. You people need to twist news to bash Microsoft? LOL.

[unknown unknown]

Partial nudity an error?

How is partial nudity an error? Someone has to create the models and textures.

[BrandonEubanks]

Well

It depends on the format they used to create the game. If they did
it in a graphical or VR mode, if is possible that they greated a nude
model and then inserted code to create clothing in different
situations. Then, somewhere in the process someone forgot a
certain piece of code or something didn't code cleanly, etc.

[GGGlen]

The error

Yeah, but the error was that they used Ballmer, and it had to be
exorcised from the code before someone found it and became
violently ill.
Not to mention the potential lawsuits filed by the Great Ape
Society...

[enovikoff]

partial nudity isn't an error

Is a Ken Doll nude when you take its clothes off? No. Because it has no genitalia. So when we're talking partial nudity, I'm guessing there are br**sts or p***ses involved. Those don't get created by "accident."

In the same vein as the previous poster, the question is, where they any of Ballmer's private parts??? LOL

[cxie]

The truth.

This is what I put together after going to bunch of message board that had information on the story.

The partial nudity it refers to was an image of a man mooning the camera. The image was in an error message in Halo 2's map editor. The man was identified as one of the developer at Bungie. The error message was originally in Bungie's internal development tool and was only intended for the amusement of Bungie's developers. When the tool was ported to Halo2's map editor(for public consumsion), the team that did the porting was not aware of this particular error message until after the fact.

I would posted the links I went to but I am not sure about cnet's term of use regarding posting links to other websites.

[masked dummy]

"Nudity" is not "Porn"

US people have a problem with nudity in general. They tend to
make a confusion between "Nude" and "Porn". See:

http://www.nyclu.org/
usps_censorship_josephine_pr_051507.html

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Super_Bowl_XXXVIII_halftime_show_controversy

Please note that God made us naked and will recall us naked
too...

MD

[K.P.C.]

Please, please, pleeeeeease . . .

. . . don't show me Balmer as he keeps coming and coming and
coming and coming . . .

[NoVista]

3,441

American troops dead in the Iraq quagmire and the Puritan Ethic against nudity (partial or otherwise) is alive and well.

[Jim Harmon]

Puritan Ethic

The muslims who are dying have an even more "uptight" position against nudity. In their eyes, we're immoral infidels.

[Wesley_Mouch]

2,974

People killed on Sept 11, 2001 by radical Islamic fundamentalists because liberals have fostered a decadent American culture that angers and repulses the Islamic world and is overwhelming traditional societies.

The image of a young boy's naked butt would be HIGHLY OFFENSIVE in many corners of the world.

Did you temporarily misplace your lofty, liberal ideals of cultural sensitivity and global awareness? Perhaps it did not occur to you that Halo 2 would be marketed anywhere beyond the Seattle area.

Microsoft isn't bowing to puritan ethic, it is bowing to political correctness.

[Marcus Westrup]

But maybe it's a picture of...

Bill Gates in a Speedo!

*shudder* - that might count as "content error"

[mattumanu]

Ahhh, man, why did you do that?

Ahh, I just harfed on that one... Don't go spreading a rumor like that one, no one will want to play halo 3.

Why can't these companies ever have a cute japanese girl as their CEO?

[Mark701]

Twisted reasoning

This is just another example of what a WEIRD country we are. It's ok to let the kiddies play a game with non-stop violence and killing, but GOD FORBID if they see a little skin!! Gimme a break.

[mouserider]

Twisted indeed

Totally right.

Let's look at the Ten Commandments... Hmmm, killing - bad,
nudity - nothing there.

It's a "military game", the content is probably some "bomber art"
that Master Chief has on a wrecked Warthog in a map.

In the whole scheme of things, do the ratings and these
"stickers" even mean anything to most buyers?

This news will probably fuel the demand for the game and create
a collector's demand for those "unique" copies of the game with
the nudity.

Then there will be the huge number of posts on FAQ and hint
sites on how to find it, and we all know that is the result of a
bunch of people playing long hours just to find it.

If anything, the patch to put the nudity back in would be more
popular than the patch to remove the nudity.

[Morale Officer]

Wardrobe Malfunction?

Who is doing the coding? Janet Jackson?

[SFSDCris]

Killing people is OK, Nudity is not?

What culture do we live in?

The game is about killing people, and Microsoft doesn't worry about that at all, but partial nudity causes a delay in the game shipping?

This is backwards. Absolutely backwards.

[mattumanu]

Meh...

It's not the killing or the nudity, it's killing in the nude that's the problem!!! All that nude killing... killing, in the nude... Nudeness and bullets and railguns, oh my!

Seriously, I think it's all a load of ****-a-dukey. It's a way to spur sales through retail propaganda.

[Jim Harmon]

George Carlin

Voilence has always been considered more acceptable than sex. George Carlin did a routine on this subject more than 30 years ago.

[ggamer2004]

Alright lets get something clear.

You need to understand that THIS IS A GAME!!! You are not killing people you are simulating war. Are you saying that all who are at war right now are unjust and just running around KILLING PEOPLE? You simulate war. No people actually die. That was ACTUAL NUDITY, and in this case, yes killing people is ok, and nudity is not.

[oxtail01]

The culture that sends young people to die unnecessarily

I hope you show just as much angst over deaths of young Americans because of a big lie! You expect anything less from a culture that worships ownership of guns? Damn right it's backwards but try explaining it to the right wingers.

[GrandpaN1947]

Nipple doesn't pass Republican morals test

Here we go. Dirty, disgusting, obscene, nipple porn ruins another game. Jerry Falwell and the Republican morals police has changed our gaming again.

[GGGlen]

Nice try!!!

But you're telling untruths as to which party is the "morals
police".
http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2005/08/68433
"The Internet Safety and Child Protection Act of 2005 -- is a
product of self-described moderate Democrats, with no
bipartisan support."
Next time, try leaving your blind, uniformed political hatred
aside, won't you?
And don't even get me started on the music industry, as it was
Al Gore's wife calling artists before Senate panels for judgement.
Jeez.... it must be good to be a Dem leader, as all your lemmings
believe it's "what you say, not what you do" that's important!
:-)

[Wesley_Mouch]

Blame the PC crowd.

Didn't you get the memo? Liberals are supposed to value cultural awareness, global sensitivity, and political correctness.

Did it occur to you that the image of a young boy's naked butt would be HIGHLY OFFENSIVE in many corners of the world?

Perhaps you didn't realize that Halo 2 would be marketed anywhere beyond the Seattle area.

Microsoft isn't bowing to Republic morals, it is bowing to political correctness.

[blatzman]

you're an idiot

it's not morals it's money they're protecting.

[Blito]

Conservative freakos

Microsoft is "offending"

[Ian Joyner]

Nudity is always wrong?

ggamer2004 wrote:

>>>QUOTE FROM ME: Nudity is wrong in all cases, other than
during sex with a spouse.<<<

So your doctor or nurse in a hospital can never see you naked?
How about in a shower room after a game? So many cases you
have to cover with this extreme view.

Ten commandments say you shall not kill, but no prohibition on
being naked - that was a perversion Adam and Eve brought
about and one that pornographers capitalize on. If we see nudity
as not being wrong, they have no market.

Since killing is wrong, what about getting gratification from
killing as depicted fictionally in a game? Didn't Jesus say, it's just
the thought that counts?

Anyway, what we have here is proof of a warped society where
you can kill or mutilate people, even if imaginary, but to see the
human form in its full beauty is wrong - and remember God was
pretty pleased with what He created! But man wants to destroy it
in thought, word, and deed.

[ElmoKajaky]

Actually

I find religion obscene and nudity just dandy - as long as it's female.

[mattumanu]

Very good

ggamer2004 also seems to think the cross wasn't meant to be glorious. Where this person get's that idea from is "rediculous". The early Christians who were martyred because of what they believed didn't die because they thought the cross was a travesty, but because after Jesus' resurrection it became a throne.

It kills me that people can't follow a simple narrative.

[Gavacho]

Partial Nudity

I first thot the slowdown was in play from gazing at the 'partial' nudity.
So, Where are the screenshots or links to screenshots? I woulda thot someone would have posted them by now.

[Flinxi]

REALISM

Just to say a couple things.

ggamer2004... from what you've said, nudity has no place in a violent video game (actually you said nudity is wrong in all cases except with a spouse during sex), and that the games are a simulation of war. So - NONE of the video games are in any way realistic!!! Are you trying to say that in war, every time someone is shot to pieces, or blown up, that EVERY SINGLE TIME they are left with full clothing on and their private parts are covered? THINK AGAIN!! Often, clothing is either torn or burned from the body and there IS nudity in war!

[Flinxi]

REALISM - Addendum

NOTE: I do agree that in this instance, the nudity should NOT be a part of the game, especially since the only way to even see it is through an error in the game, not within the game itself.

[Fil0403]

Really?

Shouldn't this be somewhere in the front page? It's a news against Microsoft afterall, are these people distracted or loosing skills?