The console games industry is well-used to media witch-hunts, but mobile hasn't really had to deal with them in its short lifetime.
That looks set to change, with iPhone drug-dealing game Underworld the subject of a story in today's Sun newspaper here in the UK.
Headlined "Fury over iPhone's 'pusher' pastime", the story explains that the game lets players buy and sell drugs including cannabis and ecstasy.
The fury in the headline comes from a mother whose 17-year-old daughter was left brain-damaged after using heroin - "Impressionable kids will play this game. It must be banned." - and also from charity Drugscope.
It'll be intriguing to see how this story progresses. The key thing to note is that although it's been heavily covered on iPhone gaming sites, Underworld isn't actually available on the App Store yet.
In fact, the decision over whether to put it on sale will be Apple's alone, meaning that it could become the subject of the tabloids' rage if it does sell the game.
It would be surprising if Apple took the risk of courting that kind of publicity at the height of the Christmas buying season.
The App Store does have age ratings - for example, Gameloft's Brothers In Arms: Hour of Heroes is rated 12+ for 'Frequent/Intense Realistic Violence' and 'Infrequent/Mild Profanity or Crude Humour'.
Underworld would presumably be a 17+ or 18+ game if it were sold on the store.
News
Contributing Editor
Stuart is a freelance journalist and blogger who's been getting paid to write stuff since 1998. In that time, he's focused on topics ranging from Sega's Dreamcast console to robots. That's what you call versatility. (Or a short attention span.)
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