Venezuelans Petition Bono Over Mercenaries 2

U2 frontman Bono has once again become caught up in the political uproar surrounding Pandemic’s Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, which features a U.S. invasion of Venezuela as the main thrust of its plot. Bono, rumored to be a keen video games player, is one of the managing partners of private equity firm Elevation Partners, which owns majority stakes in developers BioWare Corp. and Pandemic. Mercenaries 2 has already been the source of complaints by Venezuelan politicians, some of whom have claimed the game has somehow been influenced by the U.S. government, as a means to prepare U.S. citizens for a real world invasion of the country. The issue mirrors similar controversy surrounding Ubiosoft’s Ghost Recon series, which has received complaints from both North Korea and some Mexican officials for the unhelpful portrayal of their countries in various of its iterations. The latest calls upon Bono to have Mercenaries 2 cancelled come from the Venezuela Solidarity Network, which has issued an open letter to religious leaders of all faiths to in turn petition Bono to have the game canned. The letter indicates that, “Our concern is that this game will only deepen an already antagonistic relationship between the U.S. and Venezuelan governments. Millions of Venezuelans fear an invasion from the U.S.; knowing that a company that works for the U.S. military has created a game in which their country is completely destroyed will increase those concerns.” The suggestion of Pandemic working for the U.S. military is apparently a reference to the developer’s work on the Full Spectrum Warrior series, which was initially created as a training tool for the U.S. Army. Pandemic has always denied that the game has any political agenda. The game is to be released by Electronic Arts on multiple console and PC formats this year.