The scandals around games didn’t start a few years ago (the latest one would be the removal of the breast physics in Fortnite…).

One of Exidy‘s early success was Demolition Derby in 1975, where cars crashed into each other. The „arcade” machine became successful, and Exidy decided to re-release the game in a modified format, where the goal was to run over people. It was Death Race, inspired by the 1975 film Death Race 2000: tombstones replaced the killed characters. Howell Ivy, one of the creators, didn’t think that the game would become controversial… but it did.

In Seattle, a journalist has asked a player’s mother, and she said that Death Race taught her child how to run over and kill people. The news was picked up by Associated Press (and AP is still a widely respected news agency even today), and it elevated Death Race into a debate between the media, the politicians, and the psychologists. An Exidy representative’s comment, saying that „if people have fun running over pedestrians, let them” didn’t help matters either.

The company tried to market the game by saying the characters are demons in Death Race, not humans, but it was too late. Dr Gerald Driessen, a psychologist, said that Death Race is a game where the players turn from spectators of violence into those who participate and pull off violence – this thought can be used in films and television programs, too, and it’s still cited against violent games.

All of this happened in 1976.