What a party it must have been! Topless girls placing grapes into guests mouths, while Kratos hands out garlands and last but not least a dead goat. Knives, live snakes, Sony is in trouble now.

Guests at the event were even invited to reach inside the goat’s still-warm carcass to eat offal from its stomach.

Sickening images of the party have appeared in the company’s official PlayStation magazine – but after being contacted by The Mail on Sunday, Sony issued an apology for the gruesome stunt and promised to recall the entire print run.

Critics condemned the entertainment giant, which produces scores of Hollywood blockbusters each year, for its "blood lust" and said the grotesque "sacrifice" highlighted increasing concerns over the content of video games and the lengths to which the industry will go to exploit youngsters.

At the event, guests competed to see who could eat the most offal – procured elsewhere and intended to resemble the goat’s intestines – from its stomach.

They also threw knives at targets and pulled live snakes from a pit with their bare hands.

Topless girls added to the louche atmosphere by dipping grapes into guests’ mouths, while a male model portraying Kratos, the game’s warrior hero, handed out garlands.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare said it was "outrageous" that the animal’s death had been used "to sell a few computer games".

The party features across two pages of the latest edition of the company’s PlayStation magazine, which was due to hit newsstands on Tuesday but has already been sent to subscribers.

We have reproduced the spread – headlined Sony’s Greek Orgy – here, but have pixellated the image to spare readers the sight of the goat’s decapitated head hanging by a thread of tissue from its corpse, with blood dripping to the floor.

But the magazine’s readers were shown the picture in its full horror.

The article, based on a Sony Press release, shows more vivid pictures from the event under headlines such as Topless Girls! and Flesh Eating?

It asks readers how far they would go to get hold of Sony’s next-generation console, the PlayStation 3.

Former Minister Keith Vaz, Labour MP for Leicester East and a long-time campaigner against violent computer games, branded the stunt "distasteful and irresponsible".

He said: "The slaughter of animals is not something that should be done to advertise a product.

It is regarded, along with Coca-Cola, Nike and Mercedes-Benz, as one of the world’s most valuable brands.

The company, which released the game in the UK on Friday, admitted that the stunt had been a mistake. In a statement it said: "Sony does not condone or sanction any inappropriate behaviour by its staff or sub-contracted staff.

"It has come to our attention that at the God Of War II launch showcase, an element of the event was of an unsuitable nature.

"We are conducting an internal inquiry into aspects of the event in order to learn from the occurrence and put into place measures to ensure that this does not happen again."

The Sony spokesman said the animal had not been slaughtered for the event but had been bought from a local butcher by the Greek company hired to stage the event.

He said Sony’s UK office had been shocked to see the report in the official PlayStation magazine, which the company licenses to publishing house Future. Sony is this weekend recalling the entire 80,000 print run of the magazine.

The firm refused to say how the goat died. It is unusual for animals in modern Greece to be killed by having their throats cut, let alone by being decapitated.

ITANI via dailymail.co.uk »