"It’s time to stop pointing fingers at games"

Games industry representative and trade body UKIE has hit back at The Mirror’s headline blaming Call of Duty for a US Navy base massacre.

The story ‘Driven to Kill by Call of Duty?’ says that Aaron Alexis went on a gun rampage after becoming addicted to violent video games.

But UKIE CEO Jo Twist has slammed the report as ‘tiring’ and insisting there is no link between games and real-world violence.

"It’s always tiring and disappointing to see games being accused as being the cause of real world violence," she told MCV.

"Despite many studies, there is no proven link between playing games and actual violence or that playing games de-sensitises people to violence. And in fact there are many proven benefits of playing games as we know.

"Aaron Alexis may have played games, but he probably watched TV, films, and went online. Millions of people around the world enjoy games across many platforms and many genres every day, playing safely and sensibly, with no adverse effects. It’s time to stop pointing fingers."

The paper also ran reports of a shopper getting assaulted and stabbed for his copy of Grand Theft Auto V. Which doesn’t really show anything, but was a good way of getting games and violence into the same story.