Forget the quality of games or the price in the store, if you see yourself as an "ethical" shopper then your decision about which games console to buy has apparently been made for you. According to Ethical Consumer mag, it is Nintendo's GameCube and DS which should be topping your shopping list, presumably with a Fairtrade joypad or two. Ignore the fact the Gamecube is essentially in hibernation until Twilight Princess and read on.
Nintendo scored an 'ethiscore' of 10.5/20 - Sony and Microsoft scored 6.5. These scores rate companies on their corporate responsibility - so working with oppressive regimes and abusing workers rights do little to help the score. But a closer look at the console buyers guide in the magazine suggests that violent games scored less, and this may have swung the vote in Nintendo's more child-friendly direction.
So if you consider yourself an ethical consumer - or maybe a New Puritan? - and also a gamer, is Nintendo the only choice? Or is this, in fact, a carefully targetted press release aimed at the Guardian's traditional readership and actually nonsense.
