Electronic Gaming Monthly - Controversies

Controversies

Editor-in-chief Dan Hsu created a controversy in issue #199, where he ran an editorial which accused several of his competitors of selling article opportunities in exchange for advertising contracts. Much of the controversy arose from the fact that he did not give the names of any of the perpetrators, leading some to believe it was all a publicity stunt.

Another minor controversy began in regards to issue #201, dated March 2006. Pages 60 and 61 contained a large image of a man sitting on a toilet, pants around his ankles, with his hands on his crotch, which was covered by a magazine featuring characters from the game Rumble Roses XX. The simulated image of a man masturbating upset many people, and the magazine received many complaints for this graphic, not only because some thought it was in poor taste, but primarily because the issue's cover featured Disney characters Goofy and Donald Duck, as well as Square Enix's character, Sora (all from Kingdom Hearts II). Some parents felt they could easily be fooled into buying the magazine for their children because of the family-friendly characters and a lack of warning of the magazine's content. EGM defended itself by claiming that they were using the magazine as a "substitute parent" and defiantly showed the picture a second time.