This Disturbing Game Concept is Not Fiction

In a bid to raise awareness for quality of life in the South Sudan, UNICEF recently published a concept for a disturbing game where you play a seven-year-old girl facing all manner of hardship and trials.

The premise for the fake game, Elika’s Escape, sees players control a little girl whose mother dies of cholera and brother killed for his attempts to protect you. You escape, but a bullet grazes your infant baby brother.

"We are taking the level of horror in this game even to infants," a presenter says.

Once you make it to a refugee camp, things aren’t much better. The stench of sewage permeates the area, and you become so desperate that you consider prostitution to help make money to feed your family.

The premise for this game was so troubling to some attendees at a Washington DC event where it was pitched that they walked out in disgust. But that was kind of the point.

"What’s too much for a video game is happening daily to children in South Sudan," the video above says.

Mari Malek, a South Sudan refugee herself, added that while Elika’s Escape the game may be a work of fiction, the plight in the region is too real. "Elika’s story is true," Malek says. "She is me, and she is so many of the South Sudanese children that are going through this experience at this moment."

UNICEF is a humanitarian group that aims to improve the lives of young people around the world by promoting education and taking measures to combat disease and suffering wherever it is.

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Sony Not Thrilled About 20th Anniversary PS4 eBay Sales

Sony UK executive Fergal Gara is not too thrilled that some people are selling their limited-edition, 20th Anniversary PlayStation 4 systems on eBay, though he understands this can’t be stopped.

"That’s not what we want to see happen," he told Eurogamer about the eBay auctions for the rare PS4s, some of which have sold for thousands of dollars.

"It’s inevitable some proportion of that will happen, and very hard to prevent it completely" — Fergal Gara

Gara went on to say that Sony intentionally only announced where fans could buy the commemorative consoles–with only 12,300 being made worldwide, they are indeed rare–through channels that require "fan knowledge."

"It’s inevitable some proportion of that will happen, and very hard to prevent it completely," Gara explained about the eBay sales. "We did think things through. But in each and every case, the way you get hold of one of these consoles requires some fan knowledge, so we’re trying to tap into the people who love the brand the most, and put them at an advantage, because they’re the people who keep us in business, who inspire this whole 20 year legacy."

The 20th Anniversary PS4 consoles went on sale last weekend during PlayStation Experience and sold out almost immediately. For more on the commemorative console, which is modeled after the Original PlayStation and sells for $500, check out GameSpot’s unboxing video above.

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