Finally, a Change4Good

Then again, you having witnessed it isn’t the most important legacy this plasticine parable will have.

Neither, thankfully, is the soon-to-be-dangerously-chunky kid sitting with a games pad that kicks it off. (Although this time, the Change4Life crew at least used a generic-looking controller. Was someone just a little frightened by previous murmurings of Sony’s legal team, perhaps?).

No, the most lasting impact the ad will have will be the fact that you made it happen.

When the British Heart Foundation, Diabetes UK and Cancer Research teamed up with Change4Life to suggest gaming alone caused morbid obesity last month, you could hear the uproar from here to, well: BBC Radio 5, BBC Radio 4, The Daily Mail, The Evening Standard, The Times, Metro, Private Eye, The Guardian…

MCV has cruelly been accused of being both hysterical and self-congratulatory over our so-called ‘campaign’ to see justice done – and the subsequent blanket national media coverage achieved. Which is fine. We can take it.

Only problem: it wasn’t MCV’s campaign. It was EA’s. And Sega’s. And Konami’s. And Codemasters. And Atari’s. And Sony’s…

Without these voices, those few frames of a Morph lookalike prancing about on Dance Dance Revolution which mean so much wouldn’t exist.

Credit, of course, goes to ELSPA for the diplomacy and behind-the-scenes negotiation with the Department of Health that finalised the deal. But their words would have had far less impact if this put-upon industry didn’t finally say: Enough is enough.”

The Government thought that we were an easy target they could blame complicated issues on without reprisal.

Thanks to the bravery of so many of you, that’s no longer the case. Let’s keep it that way.

CRUMBLING EMPIRE

When MCV broke the sad story of Empire Interactive’s demise last Friday, we weren’t to know just how much of a ‘story behind a story’ our comments board was about to unveil.

Believe us, we don’t like to be the ones telling staff they’re going to lose their jobs. It’s not a nice feeling. And it’s not our role.

So the fact that a company email confirming Empire’s fate only went round to employees after our NewsFlash seems an absolute disgrace. The fact these same men and woman weren’t paid for eight weeks before this ugly kiss-off is even worse.

No wonder parent Silverstar is dragging its feet over confirming redundancies. Unfortunately for the US firm, the anger of these ex-employees doesn’t look like it’s going to die down anytime soon.