Kotaku is reporting today that GameStop will be pulling display copies and will stop taking preorders for Medal of Honor from all stores located on military bases (or AAFES stores), due to the inclusion of playable Taliban characters in the game. An email obtained by Kotaku was sent to all GameStop stores this morning, and reads thusly:
“GameStop has agreed out of respect for our past and present men and women in uniform we will not carry Medal of Honor in any of our AAFES based stores. As such, GameStop agreed to have all marketing material pulled by noon today and to stop taking reservations. Customers who enter our AAFES stores and wish to reserve Medal of Honor can and should be directed to the nearest GameStop location off base.”
“GameStop fully supports AAFES in this endeavor and is sensitive to the fact that in multiplayer mode one side will assume the role of Taliban fighter.”
If you’ll allow a bit of commentary on this subject, I’d argue that the decision to allow players to assume the roles of Taliban forces (whom our armed military forces are currently engaged in a war with) is dubious to say the least. Obviously we’ll have to play the game to truly understand the full context. But while I respect the creative freedom of the development teams at EA who are making Medal of Honor, this was probably a smart decision by GameStop to pull the game from these select stores.
