The gaming world is in on fire after a Fox News Channel report said that Mass Effect, a game for Xbox 360, contains scenes of "full frontal nudity and graphic sex."

Released in November last year, Mass Effect is an epic science-fiction action and role-playing game (RPG) experience created by BioWare and published by Microsoft Game Studios.

During the game, the players assume the role of an elite human Spectre agent, Commander Shepard, entrusted with keeping law and order in the galaxy. Shepard uncovers a threat so great it could destroy all life in the galaxy, but her job is complicated by the fact that no one will believe the word of a human, a race not fully trusted by the other alien races. However, the galaxy must be convinced of the grave threat at hand or all life could be exterminated.

Casey Hudson, the man who spent almost three years directing the developing team behind this project, explained that the game’s title is related to what the physicists are currently calling “dark energy” in real life. Inside the game’s universe, the “mass effect” is a physics phenomenon that the humans have just discovered and that some alien creatures can sense and manipulate.

BioWare was innovative enough to use some of the most sophisticated graphics for “drawing” the characters’ faces and not only the battles’ explosions. The game seems to be rather “filmed,” just like a movie, so that the players can see the characters’ faces and how they react and feel in different situations. BioWare was able to even render the speaking digital faces of the characters, which until now seemed to be almost impossible. 

The game has received an M “Mature” rating from ESRB which means it is only sold to 17+ year olds. The game has sold 1.6 million copies since its launch.

Earlier this week the Fox News program “The Live Desk With Martha MacCallum” has hosted a debate, "'Se'Xbox? New Video Game Shows Full Digital Nudity and Sex", between talk show host Cooper Lawrence and Spike TV's Geoff Keighley.

During the show, Cooper Lawrence, a relationship and psychology expert with a master's degree in developmental psychology, slammed Mass Effect: “Here’s how they’re seeing women: They’re seeing them as these objects of desire, as these, you know, hot bodies. They don’t show women as being valued for anything other than their sexuality. And it’s a man in this game deciding how many women he wants to be with.”

When asked about Game Head's Geoff Keighley if she played the game, Lawrence laughed and said, “No.”

Shortly after the show, Electronic Arts, who now owns Bioware, reacted by issuing an open letter saying that Fox News Channel should correct their error-plagued coverage of the game.

The letter, signed by Jeff Brown, Electronic Art's vice president of communications, outlines some of the "serious errors" made by Fox News Channel.

“Your headline above the televised story read: "New videogame shows full digital nudity and sex." Fact: Mass Effect does not include explicit or frontal nudity. Love scenes in non-interactive sequences include side and profile shots - a vantage frequently used in many prime-time television shows,” Brown wrote.

Fox News Channel said during the report that "You'll see full digital nudity and the ability for players to engage in graphic sex." According to Brown’s letter, sex scenes in Mass Effect are not graphic. These scenes are very similar to sex sequences frequently seen on network television in prime time, he explained.

Also, Fox News Channel implied that the game is being marketed to kids and teenagers, but as Brown pointed out Mass Effect and all related marketing has been reviewed by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) and rated Mature - appropriate for players 17-years and older.

“The resulting coverage was insulting to the men and women who spent years creating a game which is acclaimed by critics for its high creative standards. As video games continue to take audiences away from television, we expect to see more TV news stories warning parents about the corrupting influence of interactive entertainment. But this represents a new level of recklessness”, Brown concludes.

Fox News Channel didn’t publicly respond to Brown’s letter, but according to MTV Multiplayer, a Fox News spokesperson, who declined to be named, stated, in full: “Fox News Channel has extended several invitations to EA through a company representative to appear on ‘Live Desk With Martha MacCallum’ to discuss ‘Mass Effect’ and the segment which aired on Monday. We have received no response.”

The New York Times reports that in an interview on Friday, Cooper Lawrence admitted that she misspoke.  “I really regret saying that, and now that I’ve seen the game and seen the sex scenes it’s kind of a joke.”

“Before the show I had asked somebody about what they had heard, and they had said it’s like pornography,” she added. “But it’s not like pornography. I’ve seen episodes of ‘Lost’ that are more sexually explicit.”

Asked by GameDaily if there's anything new to report, EA VP of Communications Jeff Brown said, "Not much to say other than there's no interest here in another debate with an 'expert' that will say anything to sell a book. They need to step up and correct the record."

And it seems that everyone agrees with Brown. Fox News Channel should correct the report or to host a fair and unbiased review of Mass Effect.