Brazilian Brass Puts the Brakes on Carmageddon

It's not just US congressmen who are trying to put the brakes on games they deem to be "digital poison."

The Brazilian government late last week gave retailers 72 hours to remove Interplay's driving game Carmageddon from their shelves. And Brasoft, the game's Brazilian distributor, has decided to comply.

Which means that Tuesday is the last day retailers can sell the driving, racing, killing computer game that rewards gamers for killing pedestrians and destroying other cars.

After receiving numerous complaints that the game had incited individuals to commit acts of violence while driving, the Brazilian National Traffic Department (Dentran) put the wheels of justice in motion.

Dentran's Director José Roberto de Souza Dias said the game indeed violated Brazilian traffic policy. And he added that selling the game would therefore violate certain articles of the Consumer Rights Code, which bans advertisements that induce violence and the manufacture of a product that might cause risks to consumer safety and health.

Late last week, the Justice Ministry prohibited the manufacture, distribution, advertisement, and sale of the game, effective Tuesday, December 2.

In an interesting twist, not only is Brasoft removing Carmageddon from retail stores, but it has also stated it will coproduce - along with Denatran - an educational CD-ROM about driving safety.