12 Controversial Video Game Scandals That Rocked The Industry

6. Fox News Labels Mass Effect A "Sex Simulator"

Trust Fox News to take one look at something and fabricate the most reactionary angle possible. Such was the case with Mass Effect, which if you've played, you'll know has about as much 'sex and nudity' as a Friends episode, yet was derisively labelled a "sex simulator" multiple times.

Because Fox News.

The best part came immediately after the incendiary and lie-filled 'debate' (seen above) when middle-panelist Cooper Lawrence admitted she hadn't played the game and was simply told it was "like pornography", before saying that in hindsight, there are "episodes of LOST more sexually explicit".

She was essentially wheeled on to support an agenda that would guarantee engagement through fear of the unknown - a backwards ideology that propped up almost all the media coverage of video games across the 90s.

It all ended with EA's Vice President Jeff Brown sending an open letter to Fox, where he quite rightly stated their report was "insulting to the men and women who spent years creating a game which is acclaimed by critics for its high creative standards".

Fox quietly took their finger off the trigger, and it was never spoken of again.