News game “They took this joke for news!” Almost 20 years ago, gamers realized that television news talked nonsense about video games

Game news “They took this joke as news!” Almost 20 years ago, gamers realized that television news was talking nonsense about video games

Whey for the 8 p.m. news

On November 21, 2004, Béatrice Schönberg, then journalist and host of the France 2 television news, launched a video topic by Philippe Rochot. This opens on an arcade in Tokyo. As the camera, placed on a step of a descending escalator, sinks into the bowels of this place where the screens spit out pixels by the thousands, a voice-over is heard. “This is the kingdom of otakus, video game fans” she narrates while Japanese players frantically press buttons and shake joysticks. She adds : “here, the only delay in the release of a game called Dead or Alive caused the suicide of 147 college students who swallowed bags of silicone”. Yet barely believable, this absurd news item is not detailed. The journalist prefers to continue: “life in this virtual universe can lead to suicide, doctors said, and these young people are the victims” before focusing on dismal cases that hit the headlines in the land of the rising sun.

In front of their screens, some viewers are stunned. This story of 147 college students who died by swallowing silicone bags sounds incredible. Alex Pilot, journalist and director well known to fans of Game One and Nolife, publishes a message on the Gros Pixels forums, exasperated by what he has just heard. “After checking Japanese news sites, I’m pretty sure there was no mass suicide over the delay of Dead or Alive, or any other video game for that matter” he says.

He is convinced of it: a moderator ofXbox-Mag.neta website focused on news about the Microsoft machine run by enthusiasts of the American brand, is certain that he has already read this “information” somewhere. After some research, his impression is confirmed. In a news article titled “DoA Online postponed in Japan”, editor Ed_Warner wrote a few months earlier that “Tecmo’s fighting game was postponed” so that the studio can “tweak the game’s network code so that we don’t have to suffer from infamous lags that could affect the fighters’ breast movement”. “I have just been informed that the import fans who had pre-ordered the beast have just been found hanging with a giant bra” he concluded. At the very top of the articleby way of introduction, in the header, we read this: “the news caused a tragedy in the land of the rising sun: 147 otakus committed suicide by swallowing silicone bags to protest against this postponement by Tecmo”. Any resemblance to what was said on the France Télévisions television news may not be coincidental.. The moderator then informs the site team that a pun must have made the headlines on France 2’s 8 p.m. broadcast. Xbox-Mag then writes an article on this funny situation… which begins to be shared everywhere on the Web.

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Silicone pockets too big, but it works

Quickly, the machine takes off. Although social networks did not yet exist in France at the time, the forums caught fire and comments multiplied. Other sites and radio stations are interested in the affair, so much so that the influx of new visitors brings down the Xbox-Mag servers several timeswhich, with peaks reaching 30,000 unique visitors, leaves only one page accessible: the one discussing the affair of the 147 Japanese on France 2.

How could such a crude bit of humor, part of a brief of a few lines full of allusions to the disproportionate chests of the heroines of Dead or Alive Ultimate, be taken as a real fact by the editorial staff of France 2? Internet users quickly realize that “information” is in fact taken from a paper by Release released on November 1, 2004, titled “Japan: they make a pact to die”. “In February 2003, the announcement of the postponement of the sale of the fighting video game Dead or Alive traumatized otakus (video game enthusiasts). Furious, 147 of them, middle or high school students, committed suicide by swallowing silicone bags” we read in the lines of the newspaper. “For the moment, we do not yet know exactly how this joke could have been taken seriously or how it reached the Libération journalist.” exclaims the editor-in-chief of the fan site, Shann Biglione, in an article published on November 24, 2024.

Faced with the general incomprehension of players and the increasing mockery of the press, the editorial staff of Libération contacted Xbox-Mag to explain that an error had indeed been made. She issues an erratum the following day. The newspaper says it saw “information” in a “Japanese electronic magazine” and confesses that he has not verified the veracity of the elements exposed. Despite the relaunches of the site dedicated to Xbox news, the name of the mysterious “Japanese electronic magazine” will never be given. Meanwhile, the case of silicone bags continues to swell in the media sphere : Arrêt sur Images gives him a subject, as does Europe 1, and Shann Biglione is invited to speak in the Hebdo du Médiateur on December 4, 2004 on France 2 in the company of Philippe Rochot, the France 2 journalist who reported.

Alternative reality within the editorial staff

The least we can say is that the explanations given by France 2 are not the most satisfactory. If Libération quickly recognizes its error and apologizes to its readers, France Télévisions does not indulge in such transparency. Since the start of this strange affair, the work of Philippe Rochot has been singled out by the players: in addition to “information“unverified silicone pockets, the journalist also “exchange” the words of a Japanese player interviewed at the start of the subject. “I like fighting and gun games because the objective is clear. It relaxes me and takes away daily stress” we hear in the video, while at that moment, the person interviewed says: “every time I play, I make progress, and that’s what I like about video games”. Mr. Rochot told Xbox-Mag that it was just an editing error, and that the young man had indeed said these words, but that other images had been put in their place. Finally, the character of Kenny (South Park), whose T-shirts we see Japanese holding up, is described as a protagonist with the goal of suicide, which is false.

On Monday, November 29 in the newspaper hosted by David Pujadas, it was announced that “the report which evoked the simultaneous death via Internet of 147 young people” was wrong because “false information published in the English-speaking Asian press”. Unfortunately, no newspaper/magazine name will be given to verify these statements.

Ultimately, these silicone pockets swallowed by the journalists from Libération and France 2 remain stuck in the throat of the public. On the Internet and on the forums of specialized sites, this story which begins as a good joke leaves a definitely bitter taste. Many players are stunned by the way in which information is treated by the press, they who can finally notice certain nonsense spouted during prime time.

“I also saw this report which stunned me” we see in a comment from Gros Pixels. “Can we refuse to pay the fee for major defects in the service provided?” adds a member. “It’s a pov’ joke from the editor of the Xbox-Mag site that no one took seriously except the guy from Libé. And there you have it, it’s on France 2! It’s so beautiful it’s extraordinary” writes Alex Pilot. “It’s completely crazy, there is a team to validate a report normally, how could something like this slip through the cracks” says another visitor to the forum. For its part, France Télévision insists on calling the Xbox-Mag article on Dead or Alive “a hoax”. But as the site’s editor-in-chief has said several times, “it is important to remember that it was a joke that ended up on the television news, not false information”. A joke that became information, read and heard by more than seven million people in France.