I am unsure whether anyone else came across this golden gaming nugget. So if I am reposting something already shared forgive me. Anyway there is an old net joke where someone reminds everyone every time they do or buy something god, themselves, or a crazy lunatic kills some cute furry animal. Which most of us do find funny on a perverse level mostly, because of the utter stupidity that it happens to be. However what follows is hardly funny, because apparently every time someone bought a PS2 a cute and cuddly Congolese child was worked to death. In this day and age it is sad that western entertainment can still be built on the backs of slave labor. Give it a few weeks and this may become fanboy fodder of the rankest order.

No I am not harshing on Sony, but there will be some very demented individuals that are bound to at some point. Especially when a Sony fanboy takes some holier then thou mindset. Harshing on some other manufacturer for some perceived greivance. I can see it coming someone blasts Microsoft for buying exclusives. Then someone retorts with something along the lines of the following article. Just bringing to everyones attention, and am curious what are everyones thoughts on this.

http://videogames.yahoo.com/feature/playstation-2-component-incites-african-war/1231745

Has the video game industry dug up its very own blood diamond?

According to a report by activist site http://towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/1352/1">Toward Freedom, for the past decade the search for a rare metal necessary in the manufacturing of Sony's Playstation 2 game console has fueled a brutal conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

At the center of the conflict is the unrefined metallic ore, coltan. After processing, coltan turns into a powder called tantalum, which is used extensively in a wealth of western electronic devices including cell phones, computers and, of course, game consoles.

Allegedly, the demand for coltan prompted Rwandan military groups and western mining companies to plunder hundreds of millions of dollars worth of the rare metal, often by forcing prisoners-of-war and even children to work in the country's coltan mines.

"Kids in Congo were being sent down mines to die so that kids in Europe and America could kill imaginary aliens in their living rooms," said Ex-British Parliament Member Oona King.

SEE PICS

So where's the connection to Sony? According to Toward Freedom, during the 2000 launch of the PS2, the electronics giant was having trouble meeting consumer demand. To pump out more units, Sony required a significant increase in the production of electric capacitors, which are primarily made with tantalum. This helped drive the world price of the powder from $49/pound to a whopping $275/pound, resulting in the frenzied scouring of the Congolese hills known for being ripe with coltan.

Sony has since sworn off using tantalum acquired from the Congo, claiming that current builds of the PS2, PSP and PS3 consoles are sourced from a variety of mines in several different countries.

But according to researcher David Barouski, they're hardly off the hook.

"SONY's PlayStation 2 launch...was a big part of the huge increase in demand for coltan that began in early 1999," he explained. "SONY and other companies like it, have the benefit of plausible deniability, because the coltan ore trades hands so many times from when it is mined to when SONY gets a processed product, that a company often has no idea where the original coltan ore came from, and frankly don't care to know. But statistical analysis shows it to be nearly inconceivable that SONY made all its PlayStations without using Congolese coltan."

Currently, the Playstation 2 is the best-selling video game console of all-time, having sold through over 140 million units.

"No I am not harshing on Sony, but there will be some very demented individuals that are bound to at some point." Why is it demented to point out this problem?

This is an interesting side of the console wars that we rarely see. And obviously it's not just console manufacturing that causes this, but all manufacturing on the planet that requires scarce commodities.

Personally I do not see the story as demented. I do however see some console warriors using this story as a battle axe in debates. Which I have no doubt they will take perverse pleasure in. After all there is no moral high ground higher then accusing the competitor of running death camps and using slave labor to sell consoles. I mean it just doesn't get any more rank then that. There is no counter argument except pointing out that it was a very low blow.

Looks like we are having our first usage of it here.

I already seen this today... Ah here it is.. dupe thread: http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=35253

-edit- damn that was even a dupe thread...

Threads will be dupliacted. There's nothing wrong with it.

You have to understand that VGC is full of different time zones/locales. Most threads don't last longer than three hours, especially one of this nature. So it's not surprising that there have been three threads created about it. And I really don't see taht as being a problem.

This story is a little ridiculous, not in what actually went on in the Congo (which is reprehensible) but in it's finger pointing at Sony. Kotaku has a good right up on just what's wrong with any finger pointing at any specific company at the time

http://kotaku.com/5028998/whats-all-this-playstation-wars-business

Technically you could also be blaming Sega, Nintendo, motorola, Samsung, toshiba, etc, etc ,etc. as they all manufactured massive amounts of consumer electronics, most of which use these types of capacitors.

I guess in the end though, there's only one group of people to blame...And it's these warlords in the Congo.

Do you know if xbox live offers full game downloads or is it just the arcade style games? Sony is doing a good job of nudging digital distribution by offering some of the Blu-ray games on PSN (Warhawk, GT5P, Fatal Inertia, Siren, and Socom). I like the fact that Sony seems to have some standards on the type and quality of game that they will publish on the PSN.

Edit: Wrong Thread.

yeah F Sony!

jk, in all reality all major electronic manufacturers are to blame since they should get involved on where their materials come from and how they are harnessed.

On top of that we the consumers should take a better stance on what are obviously bad business practices by companies.

Example, is it really wrong for Nike to have factories in countries where teens and maybe younger work? After all these kids may have all of the same pay and 'benefits' of the older workforce. If this is the case, why is it really wrong?

Now, in reality most of the time these tend to be more of 'sweat shops' where the kids are really worked far harder than anyone could possibly define as justified based on the relative differences in culture and location. (Obviosly a kid, even in the US, whose family has a farm does a lot more manual labor than a kid who doesn't)

I go to Mexico and I see 10 and 12 year olds bagging groceries and other basic jobs. Is that really a bad thing? No, I don't think it is. It allows that kid to help out the family in a desirable way while not being taken advantage of.

So, I guess I kinda of went off on a tangent, but, the point is we as a consumer should help these companies make the right decisions by our decisions on what to buy. I never really thought about where these core materials come from for my Wii, Cell phones, tv's, etc. However, I only buy from what I think of are respectable companies. I hope Nintendo takes a better interest on where its core materials come from. But, since their products, like nearly everyone else, are primarily built by 3rd parties I fear it is impossible to pick someone who only uses materials that are acquired in justifiable ways.

Really, our world should change its priorities from military and economic superiority and focus on humanity. But, that is something that will probably only come when we are on the verge of extinction from robots or aliens. :)