In video game fandom, there are different levels of obsession. There are what marketing execs often refer to as the “casual” demographic, who enjoy a good match of Peggle every once and a while. Then you have your so-called “hardcore”, Mountain Dew-swigging college kids and their affection for all things Halo. Slightly further up the ladder, you have gamers that hang out religiously on company message boards, complaining about features that have or have not been included in the latest title. Then at the very top of the ladder you have Takao Ike, who threatened to blow up the offices of Husdon because he wasn’t happy with the quality of their games. Pay attention college kids -- that’s truly hardcore.
In a move that is sure to inspire even more academic research about the link between video games and blowing stuff up for real, Ike took a page from his favorite franchise Bomberman, and threatened to blow up the Japanese offices of Hudson Entertainment.
The Metropolitan police of Kanagawa prefecture finally arrested Ike last week, after he allegedly made 11 calls to Hudson demanding that they fix their game and pay a ransom of 80 trillion yen (895 Billion Dollars), or face his all-consuming nerd wrath. In a statement to police, Ike made it very clear that this was a quality control issue:
"I did it because I posted my demands concerning the games, but the games didn't improve," he reportedly told police.
Given the crazy state of the Japanese criminal justice system, we wager that the world has not heard the last of Takao Ike. Look for his upcoming indie flash game: Kanagawa Prison Breakout!
